News and opinion

It feels like everyone’s talking about focused deterrence. Since joining YEF eight months ago, it’s the intervention I’ve been asked most about; How can we deliver it in our local area? Is it really that effective? When will the findings from YEF’s multi-site trial be ready?    Alongside growing interest from government departments, we’ve seen an…

The UK riots in August 2024 brought to light significant issues facing the nation’s young people, with a worrying number of teenagers involved in the disturbances. As the situation has calmed, it’s become clear that many of those arrested were young people, prompting crucial discussions about how the justice system handles teenagers and what steps…

Two questions I get asked a lot as head of the Youth Endowment Fund is “does social media cause violence?” and “what do we do about it?” So, here’s my attempt at some answers. Does social media cause violence? The short answer is we don’t know, but I think it’s likely. Here’s the thing: there…

Every life lost due to violence is one too many. However, violence isn’t inevitable. Recent data shows there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic. In 2022/23 (the latest year we have figures for), hospital admissions for assault with a knife or sharp object were down 9% on the previous year.

Bringing together stories from 1000s of young people The efforts of Peer Researchers and the Delivery Partner organisations supporting them yielded a remarkable amount rich qualitative data from 4,600 young people on issues of violence. Initially, our priority was to validate GenAI’s capability to precisely analyse the diverse data originating from various locations throughout England…