Guns and gangs: tackling violent youth crime

In the last year there have been a number of high-profile incidents of gun crime in south London. Here, Steve Reed – Labour Leader of the London Borough of Lambeth – tells how the council is tackling the growing problem of guns and gangs. Post your thoughts on the issues raised after the article.

Just over a year ago I was walking past McDonald’s in Brixton when scores of teenagers poured out, screaming. A young man had just been shot inside the restaurant in broad daylight. Mercifully he survived. 

The council held a public meeting a few days after the incident, which attracted nearly 100 alarmed local residents.

However, in the following months, a teenage boy was shot dead inside Streatham Ice Rink. Intruders shot dead a teenage boy at his home in Clapham. And a drive-by shooting, outside a nightclub above Streatham Ice Rink, left a man in his thirties dead.  

All these victims, like others in similar incidents across south London, were young people with links to violent gangs.   

South London is not the ‘wild west’. The rise in violent crime must be kept in perspective and viewed in the context of falling overall crime. But there is clearly a problem in several of Britain’s inner cities that needs urgent attention. 

We face a toxic cocktail of:

• young people from excluded communities who feel their only access to opportunity is through crime
• an increased supply of guns and knives.

After decades of under-investment in youth services nationally, these vulnerable young people are at the mercy of gang leaders. They coerce them into activities ranging from drug dealing and street robbery, to gun crime. 

Last summer I set up a commission on guns and gangs. It was chaired by Councillor Lorna Campbell, who has strong roots in the black community.

The commission included representatives from the police, the council, voluntary and community organisations, academia, and the Greater London Authority.

Its report collected evidence, including direct research and interviews with young people. 

The report now forms the basis of a comprehensive borough-wide strategy on violent youth crime. This will be agreed at an all-day summit on 14 February 2008, the anniversary of the murder of teenager Billy Cox. 

The action plan includes a range of interventions grouped together under six headings:

1. tougher enforcement
2. support for families
3. new resources for schools
4. capacity-building for community organisations
5. expansion of youth services
6. job-related skills training.

The aim is to crack down on the criminality while expanding access to opportunity. We are also offering targeted support to young people at risk of involvement with violent gangs.

Further work following on from the summit will identify any gaps in our approach that we will need to resource; look at how public sector partners can better share information about problem individuals; and create a consistent and effective framework for work that’s already taking place.

Specific projects we’re looking at will include:

• advice for families on spotting the warning signs of gang membership with signposting to sources of help
• resourcing schools to educate young people about the dangers of gang membership and how to keep out of gangs
• stronger support for parents in families that need help
• developing a register of positive role models and peer mentors for young people, especially those from excluded communities
• finding and mapping young people missed by our current youth services and developing new ways to reach them – some of this will be through community organisations, including faith groups.

From this list it’s clear how wide-ranging the approach has to be.

Last year, Lambeth’s ‘X-It’ project won the Guardian’s Public Service Award for best children’s service. This project works with young people at risk of involvement with gangs.

We’re about to implement a ‘get tough’ approach against street drug-dealing with our new drug deterrence policy. This will see both buyers and dealers targeted with anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) and their names published.

We are attempting to turn round our borough’s misconceived reputation as a place where drugs are tolerated. Bringing initiatives like these into a comprehensive strategy will make them more effective. 

I’m convinced the solution to guns and gangs lies in the community. However, the council and its partners have a key role to play. This involves helping the community tackle the socio-economic problems that underlie gang membership and the violence that goes with it.

At the same time, we owe it to the law-abiding majority to crack down hard on those causing crime. We must not allow more young lives to be needlessly destroyed and communities damaged. On guns and gangs, I want Lambeth to be at the heart of finding answers to this problem.

Article published February 2008.