Serious youth violence plays a specific role in policing and the criminal justice system – but also in the imaginations of the public. By tapping into people’s fears (predominantly of the white, middle classes – in our cities and beyond), and defining ‘safety’ as safety from ‘thugs’ (and we all know the racialised and classed narratives that underpin such terms), those who push policing as a response to harm can paint anyone arguing for alternatives as part of the problem – as undermining the reality of what happens when a young person is murdered or critically injured.
That could not be further from the truth. We recognise the harm that many young people are facing today as a human rights issue – and the failure of the government to tackle its root causes as an abuse of children and young people’s human rights. But we are clear that ultimately this harm is perpetuated by the state: by the police, and by government neglect.
And let’s be clear about something else: those perpetuating the racist knife crime narrative do not care actually care about serious youth violence, about the overpolicing of black and working class communities, or the conditions that contribute to interpersonal violence and societal inequality.
Instead, serious youth violence is used as a tool used to justify the policing of predominantly black communities – from the practice of stop and search, to the use of dangerous weapons like TASER – and as a way of diverting attention from the government’s chronic and fatal neglect of our communities.
In the Holding Our Own report, we’ve tried to articulate all of this stickiness: that what gets called serious youth violence is a social construct; and that, at the same time, young people are being harmed and even dying – and successive governments have worsened the issue rather than tackling its root causes. We’ve also tried to grapple with the tensions: that as an issue, serious youth violence is laid at the feet of young black and working class boys – making it hard to disentangle the harmful narrative about knife crime from issues of race.
We know there are no easy answers. But there are bold alternatives that we know work. It’s high time that we stop pretending that we can police our way out of social issues, stop using young black boys as political fodder to justify harmful policing practices, and start giving communities the things they really need to live healthy, fulfilling lives.
The demands in the Holding Our Own report are life-affirming – from building an education system based on care and support, to investing in the knowledge and skills in our communities. They centre Black joy, friendship and creativity, and the hopefulness that can come when we work together to imagine and campaign on a platform of dismantling oppressive institutions, and building pathways for radical change, grounded in community care, healing justice, and love.
Emmanuelle Andrews is Policy and Campaigns Manager for Liberty and a co-author of the Holding Our Own report.
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