Rising Gang and Knife Crime among the Ethnic Minority Groups 

The issue

Violence relating to gang and knife crime among the ethnic minority youth is currently on the rise and is present in society today. More and more youth are involved in gun and knife crimes. There is a growing issue relating to gang and knife crime within the Somali community in London and the number of gang related attacks attributed to Somalis is high.

One of the factors contributing to gang and knife crime among the Somali community is discrimination in schools. Discrimination against young people from minorities in the education system is present in society. “discrimination is an action or an approach that exclude, disadvantage or simply differentiate individuals or groups of individuals, based on attributes or personal characteristics”.Youth from ethnic minority backgrounds are labelled as troublemakers and this leads to the thought of self-fulfilling prophecy and the disengaging from school life. This then also leads them joining gang members and potentially drugs and results in them falling into violence.

Background

A survey carried out by the Youth Justice Board found that offenses committed by 10-17 year olds total to 277,986 between 2007 and 2008 and the majority of these crimes are drug related offences. There are many factors that contribute to violence among the ethnic minority groups and especially the Somali youth. One of the main reasons young youth fall into crime is due to low attainment, low family income and exclusion from school. Gang and Knife crimes are persistently happening in this day and age and discrimination against ethnic minority students in school is a factor that contributes to these offences taking place. Talking from experience, it is evident that in some schools, students from ethnic minority families experience discouragement from education or are told that they are unable to achieve good grades that will enable them to progress into university. Reflecting back on my own education, there have been instances where teachers try to put you down and tell that you are not capable of achieving high marks. This will have an effect on your confidence therefore will result interruption to education.

And this is one of the reasons why the youth might have self-fulfilling prophecy. Knife crime is a common issue in large multicultural cities and is particularly more common in London. In 2018-2019, London experienced 169 knife offences per 100,000 people. This issue of gang and knife crime in London seems to be becoming more widespread. It is evident that injuries due to knife crime are becoming more common than they were in recent years. There are more and more youth who are receiving hospital care then in recent years due to knife crime.

Current status

This part will explore what interventions are already in place, the effectiveness of these interventions and what more can be done to effectively tackle the problem.

For the reduction of knife crime and gang related offences, there is presently a wide range of interventions that are in practise throughout the world but it seems that the problem is still present. A lot of education based interventions are in place to tackle gang and knife related crimes, but more needs to be done to understand the root cause of the problem and ways to tackle it. Programmes are implemented to reduce risk factors that can result violence. The intervention for school inclusion is one of the programmes put in place and identifies students at risk of exclusion or low academic attainment and by putting this in place, it shows that it has a positive impact on community engagement, academic achievement and the ability to express emotions constructively. Nonetheless, it doesn’t effectively target discrimination against ethnic minorities, therefore more needs to be done to resolve this issue.

Other interventions include diversionary activities and one of the things that has been successful in aiding to reduce gang and knife crime is sports. According to Crabbe “sport has been identified as being a vehicle for change in reducing knife related crime and inter personal violence amongst young people”. Moreover, Crabbe further debates that “engagement in sport may help young people keep busy with a positive distraction, and can give them greater sense of control, distraction and respect”. Having that sense of belonging to a sports group or a membership will give the youth a positive effect.

Educational interventions are in place to give young people the awareness they need to know about the bigger problem that is associated with gang and knife related violence. This intervention ensures that the youth are aware of the possible impact of “knife crime for all parties involved, including the physical, emotional and legal consequences, and it educates them about the sanctions if they are caught carrying a weapon and the fact that carrying a weapon may actually increase one’s risk of being victimised”. The youth and especially the youth from the Somali community will be benefitted by this intervention because there is a need for an in-depth explanation of how the criminal justice system works for the Somali community as they might not be aware of the consequences carrying a knife can result.

It is known due to research that the criminal justice interventions have been an important element in tackling knife-related crime. One of the biggest policy in trying to combat knife crime is the stop and search policy and this is in place to support the appropriate use of powers that aim to tackle criminality. This policy allows the police to conduct “stop of an individual or vehicle and allows them to search that person or vehicle without making an arrest first”. However, it is evident that the police use the stop and search powers so excessively against certain groups. Black or ethnic minorities are generally more often involved in crime and according to the equality and human rights commission “since 1995, per head of population in England and wales, recorded stops and searches of Asian have been remained between 1.5 and 2.5 times the rate for white people, and for black people always between 4 and 8 times the rate for white people”. Nevertheless, the equality act and stop and search policy ensures that forces eliminate unlawful discrimination, victimisation and harassment.

Recommendations

Immediate action is needed to alleviate the deaths caused by violence involving knives. More needs to be done to challenge this issue of gang and knife crime amongst ethnic minorities and especially the Somali Youth. In order to do this, the root cause of violence amongst these groups needs to be understood. Factors contributing to violence needs to be updated. Discouragement for education for ethnic minorities is not spoken about. It is an issue that is present but there is little knowledge. A policy needs to be put in place that tackles discrimination against children from ethnic minority families in schools as well as discouragement from education to minimise violence among young people from minority ethnic groups.

• Consider: all policies that are in place to tackle both discrimination against students from ethnic minority background, their effectiveness, their weakness and revise policies regularly to ensure that it is successfully preventing the issue.
• Ensure: that schools have an updated versions of anti-discrimination policy which aims to give learners and environment that is free from discrimination and that staff are aware of the ways in which discrimination can be prevented when it comes to education.
• Ensure: that there is training programmes in place to make staff aware and understand the impact discrimination has on young ethnic minority youth and the effects on their learning and the consequences the youth face.

Developing a policy

There is the need for a policy that encourages anyone from an ethnic minority background to reach their full potential, that tells them to aim for higher marks in schools instead of telling them there are other options that would be good for them, but then these options may not necessarily take them to university. Finally, if students are told they can make it through school and university, then there will be a reduction to pupils dropping out of school and turning to gang members potentially falling into violence. The moment you get into university, there is that sense of achievement and from there on you are on your way to success, therefore, the invention of a policy that fully encourages student in school to reach university is crucial and will minimise the rising gang and knife related violence.