New research to uncover why Newcastle has low rate of violent youth crime

The city thankfully sees many fewer incidents than other major cities across Britain, and now the Newcastle Youth Justice Service has been given funding to try and find out more about the reasons behind that.

Cllr Clare Penny-Evans, chair of the Safe Newcastle partnership and Newcastle City Council’s Cabinet member for climate change and communities, said: “We appreciate that occasional shocking crimes stick in the memory, and we must do all we can to try and prevent those, but actually Newcastle is very fortunate in the low levels of serious youth violence that we see.

“At the moment the reasoning behind that positive situation is not fully understood, but this new Pathfinder funding will allow our Youth Justice Service, in partnership with researchers from Northumbria University, to explore how the good work being done in our area is having a positive effect in our communities, and in turn how other cities could benefit from that experience.

“I very much look forward to learning more and hope that what is happening here in Newcastle can help reduce the number of families who face the heartache of seeing a loved one hurt, or worse.”

Ministry of Justice Pathfinder projects

Across the country, the Ministry of Justice is funding Pathfinder projects in 23 council areas, including both those that are doing well and those where there are more issues, looking at three aspects of preventing and tackling offending.

Newcastle is one of ten – including Manchester, Nottingham, Southampton, the London boroughs of Brent, Croydon, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, and Sandwell, near Birmingham – looking at the issue of serious youth violence.

Serious youth violence a 'social emergency'

Nationally there has been a rise in serious youth violence in recent years - a situation the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee described as a “social emergency.”

Murders and the number of under 18s admitted to hospital with knife injuries have both increased by over a third, and blade offences in general are up more than 70 per cent. 

These crimes are disproportionately concentrated in metropolitan areas - particularly in London, but also Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and the West Midlands – with Merseyside seeing a 35% increase in knife or sharp instrument offences over the last year.

However, that is not the case in Newcastle, where rates of serious offending is lower than the national average; less than one in five offences committed by young people involves any form of violence or someone carrying a weapon; and the vast majority of reoffenders commit thefts or other minor crimes.

This three-year research project will aim to explore the reasons behind this, and how that can be shared with other areas to help them deal with the issues they face.

For more information about the work of Newcastle’s Youth Justice Service visit our Youth Justice Service page.