Spate in London youth murders directly linked to poverty and austerity, practitioners warn

‘It’s no good convincing a teenager that carrying a knife isn’t the right way of going about things if they haven’t got the basics around them, like coming home to a meal or having a parent around’

Youth workers and other practitioners have said financial pressures on parents to work long hours and cuts to vital youth support programmes are leaving teenagers ‘vulnerable’ to a life of crime (Getty)

Austerity is contributing to a spate of youth murders on the streets of London, as poverty-stricken households and “decimated” youth services push young people into a cycle of violence, practitioners have warned.

Youth workers and other practitioners told The Independent that financial pressures on parents to work long hours and cuts to vital youth support programmes are leaving teenagers in a “vulnerable place”. This causes some of them to turn to a life of crime, they said.

It comes amid heightened concern over violence in the capital after a 17-year-old girl was fatally gunned down in the north London borough of Tottenham. Tanesha Melbourne-Blake, who was from the borough, was the 47th murder victim recorded by Scotland Yard this year.

Of those, 31 were killed with knives – the vast majority of them young men. Across England and Wales they are now at their highest levels since 2011, growing by 12 per cent in the year ending December 2017.

Many of the victims and perpetrators were below the age of 21, prompting questions about why the number of violent incidents between teenagers appears to be increasing.

Tom Isaac, a youth worker who supports stabbing victims at a paediatrics unit in South London, told The Independent that the young people referred were usually aged between 11 and 18.

Often from households where parents are out working most of the time, he said they are deprived of youth services in the community which have been “cut to shreds”.

Oasis Youth, the service Mr Isaac heads up in St Thomas’s Hospital, has seen a spate of referrals this year, with 2018 set to be the busiest year since it began.

He said there were four stabbing referrals over Easter bank holiday weekend alone.

“Poverty is a big systemic issue. If a young person’s mum is working nights as well as days, and hasn’t got time, they’re left in the flat on their own. A lot of the time the parents don’t know what’s going on. They don’t have the time or the capacity,” Mr Isaac said.

“People don’t realise how much the youth sector has been decimated. The youth and community sector has been cut to shreds. Since the recession, we’ve had cuts year on year. Now we rely on competing for funding bids. It’s really hit this year, we’re at crisis point.”

He added that for the young people growing up in many London estates, safety is “daily threat”.

“They feel unsafe in their area. ‘I know my friend my age got stabbed last week. I need to carry a knife’. That’s their thinking. That’s the number one reason they carry knives,” he said.

Rhammel Afflick, a 23-year-old a youth campaigner who works closely with young people in some of London’s most deprived areas, said the rise in working families in poverty was directly linked to young people becoming embroiled in violence.

“The violence is linked to young people not having the basics. It’s no good convincing somebody that carrying a knife isn’t the right way of going about things if that person hasn’t got the basics around them – like coming home to a meal or having a parent around,” he said.

“We know more people are working and living in poverty. All of this is having an effect. Youth violence links directly to austerity and poverty. It stems from people being in a vulnerable place in the first place.”

Mr Afflick claimed the authorities were focusing on the “wrong things” in tackling youth violence, accusing Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick of “misjudging” the issue when she recently blamed social media for playing a part in youth violence.

“We’re focusing on the wrong things. Social media might exacerbate the situation, but I don’t think you can say it’s a cause. To say its leading directly to violence is a misjudgement,” he said.

“It isn’t a new problem. We’ve been talking about it before. It’s really time for the government and the mayor’s office to listen to what the communities been saying.”

Temi Mwale, who started a project to stop youth violence after her childhood friend was murdered, said poverty was the “greatest form of violence”.

“It creates an environment where other forms of violence can thrive – there’s a lack of opportunity, general disadvantage,” she added.

Ms Mwale, who works with young people across London on a daily basis, added: “It is deeper than that – the solutions need to focus on addressing the health implications of violence too.

“Every young person who has been a first-hand victim of serious violence, such as a stabbing, require immediate access to counselling, therapy, other mental health services and community based emotional support services.”

Jermaine Jackman lost a number of friends to knife crime while growing up in the north Hackney, before going on to win The Voice.

Now the chair of a youth project in the capital, he accused politicians of failing to act on the endemic, saying there was an undeniable link to poverty.

“We can’t remove this endemic from poverty – we have pockets of poverty across London. We see gentrified areas – groups and marginalised communities constantly squeezed, poor relationships with police, no trust, no confidence, no relationships,” he said.

“The mayor and politicians have been dragging their feet for so long. It’s being used as a political football. It’s an inability to act.

“We need to overhaul the way we look at youth violence . Rather than looking at them as criminals, we need to look at them as a small piece of a massive puzzle.”

Following Monday night’s murder, the deputy Mayor for policing and crime, Sophie Linden, said London’s Metropolitan Police needed further government support.

Citing a “funding crisis” facing police services across Britain, which she said the force was being made to find £325m in savings by 2021.

“We want it to be even safer, and we’re working hard to bring an end to this violent scourge,” she said.