Our position on the response to serious violence
Violence is the product of multiple, complex and deep-rooted issues within society, it is not inevitable. From our research, it is clear that various government policies over the last decade have exacerbated many of the root causes of children becoming affected by, and involved, in serious violence.
In this response we explain our position on serious violence and our recommendations for government response to serious violence.
Our key points and recommendations include:
The number of children picking up knives appears to be growing. In the year to March 2019, one in five people cautioned or convicted of carrying a knife was under 18, compared to 16% in 2014.
Children with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are much more likely to become victims or perpetrators of serious violence. Public Health Wales found that people with four or more ACEs were 15 times more likely than those with no ACEs to have committed violence against another person in the last year, as well as 14 times more likely to have been a victim of violence over the last year.
Funding for support services that help identify and protect children at risk of ACEs has fallen significantly.
To see sustained improvements, it is vital to tackle the root causes of violence, including “childhood trauma, undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues, inadequate state provision and deficient parental support, poverty and social inequality”.
The response to serious violence will only be effective if it is evidence-based, and takes the context in which the child is at risk and trauma they have experienced into account.
The Government’s response to tackling serious violence should be part of a broader strategy to improve the capacity of the safeguarding system, statutory and voluntary services to protect children at risk of harm outside the home, including but not limited to serious violence – child sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation and other forms of harm should also be considered in a coordinated way.
We welcome the growing recognition of the need to adopt a public health approach to youth violence, treating it as we would a contagious disease. This means collecting data and conducting research to identify the character and scale of the problem, why it occurs and who it impacts.
Full Response: Our position on the response to serious violence *
*Please note, this response was published under our previous name of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice (SCYJ)