LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – The Metropolitan Police Service and London-based charity WAVE (Worldwide Alternatives to Violence) are holding a unique conference to help find long-term solutions to serious youth violence.
The conference, entitled “Working Together To Reduce Serious Youth Violence” is being held tomorrow (20th November 2007) at the Royal Horticultural Society at Lindley Hall, Elverton Street, London SW1P 2PE.
More than 250 key decision-makers from across London’s 33 boroughs have enrolled so they can work together to consider and develop solutions to the problems of youth violence. WAVE was created to research the root causes of violence and identify the world best practice for tackling them. The results of this 10-year research initiative were published in 2005 in the ground-breaking report Violence and What to do about it.
WAVE Trust’s Chief Executive Officer George Hosking said: “WAVE is working with the major UK political parties and various police forces as well as many international groups, including the World Health Organisation, in the pursuit of making society much safer.
“This conference is a wonderful opportunity to take our work into the heart of London, for who better to collaborate with in stemming the tide of violence than those who deliver the policies and have to pick up the pieces of failures? We already know that what happens to children when they are very young shapes how they develop, and that early intervention really does work to reverse damaging trends.
“What we now need is policies to develop this knowledge into reliable, effective action. I see this action as multi-layered, starting with ways to stop child victims slipping through society’s net and possibly joining the ranks of dangerous youths and adults, then moving up the scale to find ways to divert vulnerable likely offenders from embarking on that path and finally, crucially, where prevention is too late, we need to cure offenders of the habit of re-offending.”
The conference will give key London Borough partners a unique opportunity to hear about the latest pertinent academic research and developments from programmes around the world. It will provide an opportunity for colleagues to explore such issues as how more effective engagement from partners and investment in young people can support the drive to reduce serious youth violence across the capital.
The Metropolitan Police Service is working closely with partners across London to combat serious youth violence and at the end of June launched Operation Curb – a pan-London drive to tackle serious violence among London’s youth. This work is ongoing and involves proactively targeting offenders, increasing patrols to deter offending and provide reassurance and gathering intelligence.
Commander Shaun Sawyer, the head of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Violent Crime Directorate, said: “The police will continue to target offenders through gathering intelligence and enforcement but the real solutions to the problem can only be found through collaborative work with all the different agencies. Today’s conference provides an excellent opportunity to share experience and shape effective ways to prevent serious violence from occurring in the first place.”
