Breaking the Cycle: Youth Violence Prevention, Trauma-Informed Practice and Multi-Agency Strategies

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

How do you reduce youth violence in a post-industrial region, battling to recover from a decline in its traditional shipping and fishing industries? Based on an ongoing evaluation of a violence prevention partnership in the North-east of England, the causes of youth violence are firmly located in a sense of threat felt by young people. This threat is constituted of precarity and trauma in the home, the neighbourhood, and the night-time economy. Coupled with strained relationships with criminal justice, youth and children’s services one response to this is hypervigilance among young people. 

Delving into the specific processes of a violence reduction partnership, this panel will highlight the benefits of a trauma-informed, strengths-based partnership and evaluation.  Through a detailed case study, we will introduce insights yielded at the mid-way point in the partnership about the different activities funded by the partnership. Concluding with an assessment of the achievements and challenges of this partnership approach, we will provide valuable interdisciplinary perspectives to the field of youth violence reduction. 

Subtopic

• Topic 5: Social Control and Criminal Justice / Non-Criminal Justice Responses to Delinquency (WG on Collateral Consequence of Criminal Records)

Chair

• Nicola O'Leary, University of Hull

Individual Presentations

• Effectiveness of Violence Reduction Units in England and Wales, 2019-2023 - Iain Brennan, University of Hull

• Trauma Informed Approaches to Criminal Justice - Victoria Burton, University of Hull; Craig Barlow, Craig Barlow Consultancy & Training Ltd.

• ‘On the field’: case study of sports interventions for young people at risk - Sophie Louise Blanchard, University of Hull; Simon Green, University of Hull

• How to Build a Safe Place: a strengths-based, partnership approach to preventing violence  - Charlotte Victoria Russell, The University of Hull; Nicola O'Leary, University of Hull