‘To tackle violence, we must go back to the beginning’
VIOLENCE on Tyneside may spike before it reduces as the country enters its first summer without Covid restrictions.
That’s the view of the man in charge of the North East’s first specialist Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), set up to tackle the devastating scourge of knife crime and violence.
Northumbria VRU director Steven Hume has today set out the unit’s plans for the next year, as he warns the area could face a post pandemic rise in serious crime.
And he has revealed how the team has now identified the 10 “hot spot” areas in Tyne and Wear and Northumberland most at risk of violence, where resources will be targeted. While individuals who cause the most danger to their communities have also been identified so their behaviour can be addressed.
Mr Hume said: “It will probably get worse before it gets better, but we know that and we know which areas are at risk. We are nowhere near to cracking the problem. The pandemic made us realise just how important our work was.”
Northumbria’s VRU was set up in 2019 after Kim Mcguinness was elected into the role of Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria. It aims to reduce violent and knife crime by taking a long-term approach to tackling its causes. And the need to address the issue has become all the more urgent since serious violence rose by 27% last year as the country emerged from lockdown and pubs and clubs reopened.
The VRU has now devised plans for its fourth year which include:
Using data and local intelligence to interrupt violence by identifying hotspot areas where action is needed;
Addressing the offending behaviour of those causing the most disruption in communities and work with their whole families;
Providing community-based interventions and diversionary activities to reduce vulnerability and tackle offending; and
Educating young people on the dangers and consequences of violent crime to reduce their risk of becoming involved.
“The first challenge is we have got to understand what the problem is,” Mr Hume explained. “Our situation is entirely different to that of London and Manchester. We can’t just do things to people, we need to work with them. We need people to be part of the solution and we need to understand what it’s like to be a resident in these areas.
“We have got to understand where are the risks and how do we stop people exploiting the vulnerable.
“We have done a risk assessment across the whole of Northumbria to identify hotspots.”
Just months after Northumbria’s VRU was established, the UK was plunged into a lockdown as coronavirus cases soared. Mr Hume said this gave the unit new and unexpected challenges, which made its work more important than ever.
“When I first came into this job I would have said domestic abuse was the main problem,” said Mr Hume. “It’s still a massive issue, but while we don’t have the gang issues other areas have, we do have issues of young people being exploited.
“We have seen people who went into the pandemic as children and have come out as young adults. They have gone into the night-time economy for the first time as 18 or 19-year-olds and we still don’t fully understand the impact of that.
“And from a mental health perspective, for some people who haven’t felt listened to or who were struggling, it’s easier to resort to physical violence.”
By identifying individuals who are at risk of causing harm to others, the VRU aims to discover the causes of their offending so it can be addressed to protect potential victims.
He added: “It’s about going back to the start to understand the people who are most at risk. For example in households where people are exposed to domestic abuse they are more likely to become perpetrators.
“We know people who live in our more poor areas are at an increased risk of being exposed to violence and people’s interactions with the police are different. We need to understand what’s behind that.”
For the past year the VRU has run custody intervention programmes to engage with offenders who have had their first taste of life in prison to help them turn a corner. Since the
VRU’S launch, re-offending rates have fallen, with offences committed by young people dropping by almost 30%. In addition, 75% of those engaging in the custody diversion project have reduced involvement with the Criminal Justice System and have an action plan for the future, the unit says.
PCC, Ms Mcguinness said: “I recently announced my commitment to Fight Poverty, Fight Crime, and part of this approach is the work of the Violence Reduction Unit in preventing crime from happening by improving the lives of those most vulnerable to exploitation. Sadly, we know that large proportions of violence occur in areas where poverty is most prevalent – but we cannot just arrest our way out the problem. That’s why the Violence Reduction Unit works with individuals at risk of becoming a victim or before they are drawn into crime.”