Youth Violence and Child Criminal Exploitation

Our work focuses on understanding the drivers, impact, and responses to child criminal exploitation and youth violence across the UK.

Child criminal exploitation (CCE) and youth violence are critical issues that intersect with broader societal challenges, including deprivation, family instability, and gang involvement. NatCen’s Crime, Justice, and Security team has extensive experience in researching these topics, focusing on understanding the drivers, impact, and responses to CCE and youth violence across the UK.

NatCen aims to lead on future work that enhances understanding of the structural factors contributing to CCE and youth violence. 

By expanding research on the socio-economic and psychological drivers of CCE and youth violence, NatCen seeks to provide comprehensive policy recommendations to reduce exploitation and violence.

NatCen plans to strengthen its partnerships with government bodies, charities, and law enforcement to co-develop strategies that prevent CCE and support young people at risk.

NatCen is exploring opportunities to launch longitudinal studies that track the outcomes of young people involved in or at risk of violence, providing long-term insights into the effectiveness of interventions. 

Live research

Turnaround programme evaluation (2024)

Launched by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in December 2022, the programme provides £56.5m multi-year funding to 155 Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) across England and Wales up to the end of March 2025, enabling them to intervene earlier and improve outcomes for children on the cusp of entering the Youth Justice System (YJS). 

The scoping stage consisted of document reviews, Theory of Change development and workshops, national stakeholder interviews and a scoping survey with all YOTs. NatCen are currently conducting case studies in eight YOTs consisting of observations to measure how interventions are being received on the ground. This work also includes depth interviews and focus groups with programme leads, delivery staff, local stakeholders, young people receiving interventions and the parents of young people receiving interventions. NatCen is also conducting a longitudinal survey in 19 YOTs with children to measure impact. 

Lives Not Knives Education Feasibility and Pilot Study (2023)

A school-based programme that combines a universal workshop approach and targeted one-to-one mentoring to reduce school exclusion, as well as prevent knife-carrying and youth violence (2023).

SW!TCH Lives Feasibility Study

We were commissioned to undertake a feasibility study of SW!TCH Lives for the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The study assessed the feasibility of delivering the combined intervention (both the universal and targeted elements) as intended in schools; identified and test appropriate measures and mechanisms for assessing the intended outcomes of the intervention; and measured early ‘distance travelled’ as a result of receiving SW!TCH Lives.  

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