Javid: we must treat violence as a disease
VIOLENCE should be treated like an infectious disease to stem sharp rises in gun and knife crime, Sajid Javid is poised to announce.
The Home Secretary is planning to give police officers, teachers, social service workers and council officials a new legal duty to take a “public health” approach to violent crime, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.
They will be expected to work together to identify young people who are at risk and do everything they can to divert them from gangs and criminality.
As part of the strategy, Mr Javid is to unveil a 10-year, £200million “youth endowment fund”, which will be targeted at violent crime “hotspots”.
The fund will support projects aimed at helping children aged between 10 and 14 who are considered most at risk, including mentoring and counselling.
The announcement is expected to be the centrepiece of Mr Javid’s speech at the Conservative Party conference next week, which is likely to feed the mounting speculation about his poten- tial as a future leader. Since his appointment as Home Secretary he has repeatedly clashed with the Prime Minister over her hardline stance on migration and called for greater funding for frontline police officers.
It comes as knife crime in England and Wales has reached the highest levels since records began, with more than 40,000 offences in the year to March – a 56 per cent rise since 2014. The number of murders rose by 12 per cent to 701.
In London there have been more than 100 homicides this year, with three out of five deaths involving knife attacks and a third of the victims aged between 16 and 24.
Mr Javid is concerned that law enforcement alone is not sufficient to tackle violent crime and wants to do more to tackle the “root causes”.
He will launch a consultation later this year on the new “statutory duty” to take a public-health approach to tackling violent crime.
The Telegraph understands that the approach has been welcomed by some ministers, but that others have raised concerns it will place an additional burden on public services that are already struggling to cope with cuts.
The Government intends to identify children who are vulnerable to becoming involved in crime using data on “risk factors” such as truancy, school exclusion, domestic violence and gang membership.
Other factors include having a parent who has been convicted of a crime, poor housing and a disrupted family. One study in south London found that 85 per cent of children who had five or six risk factors went on to offend.
The new approach is being modelled
on a long-term programme in Glasgow, where the homicide rate – in the city once nicknamed the murder capital of western Europe – has halved.
The Violence Reduction Unit, which was set up by Strathclyde Police in 2005, offered teenage gang members a way out through education, training and mentoring.
The innovative approach also required police to talk to the mothers and other family members of teenagers who were considered at risk to help apply pressure.
The unit trained more than 4,000 children in schools to act as “mentors” and talk to their classmates about knife crime, violence and other issues.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, has announced the launch of a similar unit in London.
Will Linden, deputy director of the Violence Reduction Unit, said: “If the only tool you’ve got in the box is criminal justice, everything looks like a crime.
“We looked at it and thought we need to engage with health, social services and education. With everyone. It’s about addressing the underlying factors such as domestic violence, social isolation and exclusion and mental health.
“We used the Boston approach, which basically means you sit there with them. They were all involved with criminality and all involved with violence. We talked in quite a brutal way. We threatened them.
“Equally and perhaps, more importantly, we then had the prevention side of it. If you need access to jobs, training, mentoring, we will help you. But it was up to them. We left the choice with them. It was a Hobson’s choice.
“The impact of this approach has been huge. The number of murders, attempted murders, serious assaults and hospital admissions has fallen dramatically.”
♦ Criminal gangs are preying on excluded schoolchildren by grooming them as they leave so-called pupil-referral units, according to a study commissioned by the Home Office. The units, which provides education support for children who have been excluded from schools nationwide, are a “fertile ground” for gang recruitment, The Times reported last night.