Focused Deterrence Delivery Guidance
How to deliver focused deterrence to keep children and young people safe from involvement in serious violence.
Published -
March 5, 2025 This report offers practical guidance to help organisations deliver effective and equitable focused deterrence (FD) in England and Wales. This guidance is aimed at the delivery of FD programmes to reduce serious violence that involves children and young people. It also acknowledges the role of influential older associates, including adults, who may be contributing to or influencing violent behaviour.
This guidance will be most applicable to FD programmes addressing serious violence involving individuals or groups. Insights provided may not fully apply to other applications of FD, such as for drug markets or intimate partner violence.
Evidence that underpins the guidance
This guidance report draws upon the best available global evidence on FD. This includes the YEF Toolkit strand on FD, which is based on a rigorous, independent, systematic review of 24 studies.
FD is a well-evidenced strategy that shows promise for reducing serious violence involving children and young people. The average impact of FD on violent crime is likely to be high. The strongest impacts were found in 12 studies on programmes designed to reduce serious violence generated by conflict between groups.
Although FD has been attempted in the UK over 25 times, there are few robust evaluations within the international evidence base and limited insight into how it was implemented. There is also very little evidence on how anti-racist and racially equitable practices are embedded into FD programmes.
This guidance, therefore, also uses early findings from the ongoing YEF evaluation of FD across five sites in England, in addition to a rapid review and supplementary primary research of FD implementation in the UK.
Recommendations
The recommendations in this report provide guidance on the ‘best bets’ from the underpinning evidence. Leaders’ professional judgements on how to use these recommendations, as well as their knowledge of local contexts, remain critically important.
The YEF and the Home Office have funded an £8 million programme to test and evaluate how Focused Deterrence can be adapted for the UK; and it’s currently being delivered in Coventry, Nottingham, Leicester, Manchester and Wolverhampton. Below each recommendation, hear from Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Violence Reduction Network on how FD has been delivered.
PREPARATION
1 – Determine whether you have a serious violence problem that involves children and young people and whether it could be addressed by delivering FD.
Why? FD is resource-intensive, so it should be used in areas where serious violence is significant and persistent. Before deciding to implement FD, it is important to assess whether significant serious violence is present.
2 – Before delivering focused deterrence, check that you have the required resources, team and buy-in.
Why? FD is a complex and demanding intervention, and under-resourcing its delivery and failing to secure buy-in often results in implementation failure.
3 – Establish a multi-agency working group that coordinates between the police, community and support services.
Why? The working group facilitates effective multi-agency collaboration, which is crucial for the success of FD. It also ensures the necessary capacity for effective implementation and sustainability.
IDENTIFICATION
4 – Use high-quality data and intelligence to identify the right people to focus on.
Why? Serious violence is often driven by a small group of individuals. It is critical to identify and target these people using high-quality multi-agency data and community insights. Reliable data strengthens the precision of FD, helping to prevent disproportionality and ensuring it is both fair and accurately focused on those driving violence.
IMPLENTATION
5 – Involve families, residents, leaders and organisations from the local community in programme development and delivery.
Why? Involving local communities enhances the credibility and legitimacy of FD and ensures the programme is aligned with the community’s needs and values. It also facilitates the reintegration of individuals into their community.
6 – Communicate clearly and frequently with individuals about the programme, the support on offer and the consequences for continued violence and re-offending.
Why? Clear and consistent communication is crucial. It ensures individuals understand what the programme is, why they are involved and the legal and personal consequences for continued violence and re-offending. It also highlights the immediate support available to help them desist.
7 – Prepare immediate, certain and proportionate
consequences for continued violence and re-offending, which are coordinated by the police.
Why? FD relies on increasing individuals’ awareness of the risks and certainty of swift consequences for continued violence and re-offending, ensuring they directly link their actions to predictable, enforceable outcomes.
8 – Provide a breadth of timely and appropriate support options.
Why? Responsive and appropriate support is essential for addressing the causes of violence and helping children and young people desist and stay safe.
MONITORING
9 – Track the progress of individuals and monitor
operational delivery.
Why? Monitoring ensures that the programme effectively addresses the local serious violence problem and allows for accountability, learning and programme adaptation. Monitoring is also crucial for addressing race equity risks, helping to identify and mitigate disparities.
Downloads
Download the guidance report
Focused Deterrence Delivery Guidance full report.
Download the data and intelligence tool
Learn more on how to use data and intelligence when delivering focused deterrence.