Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Keeping Young People Safe and Out of Trouble

Joining up the community safety and youth offending agendas

By Crime Concern

The idea that there should be collective responsibility to prevent youth offending, now firmly established, is shared by a range of public and voluntary sector agencies, as well as the wider community. Equally it is recognised that there is a need to join up and improve services for children and young people. Joined up working is particularly embodied by the multi-agency Youth Offending Teams (YOTs), responsible for preventing offending and re-offending by young people, and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) responsible for cutting overall crime levels (a significant proportion of which involves younger people as victims and offenders). Coinciding with these developments, there has been a significant increase in funding, from local and national sources, for activities aimed at tackling youth crime and the risk factors associated with it.

This briefing paper explores how the agendas of YOTs and CDRPs can be combined most effectively to reduce youth crime without exacerbating social exclusion among young people.

It begins with a brief overview of CDRPs’ and YOTs’ current remits. Section 2 draws a broad ‘strategic map’ of the structures and services at local level. Section 3 describes a range of specific ‘dilemmas’ which hinder the work of managers, practitioners, volunteers and young people, and offers practical solutions to each of these. Finally there is a word about the roles of YOTs and CDRPs in helping to reduce the high number of young people who fall victim to crime at school, in their own homes and in their communities.

This briefing paper has been prepared by Ann McDermott and Rosie Chadwick, Crime Concern. It has been produced as part of the Partnership Support Programme (PSP), delivered by Crime Concern and Nacro in the government regions and Wales, and funded by the Home Office.

Getting a copy

Keeping Young People Safe and Out of Trouble: Joining up the community safety and youth offending agendas - Crime Concern PDF 501Kb

About NACRO and Crime Concern

Nacro and Crime Concern both have extensive experience in working with local partnerships to tackle problems of crime and disorder. They are at the forefront of developing community safety practice and translating new approaches into practical measures.

In particular they:

• offer partnerships help, advice and training in auditing, consultation, strategy development and implementation

• provide monitoring and evaluation services

• promote best practice

• manage a range of crime reduction projects, many of which focus on tackling youth offending and youth victimisation through restorative justice, mentoring and youth inclusion approaches

• provide implementation support for other major national programmes, including the Home Office Reducing Burglary Initiative.

Last update: 15/09/03