New report on supporting women and girls involved in serious youth violence

Friday, 5th March, 2010

Specialist services and policies targeting women and girls involved in gangs are needed to help reduce and prevent youth violence, says a new report by Race on the Agenda (ROTA).

The Female Voice in Violence report draws on face-to-face research with 352 friends, relatives, victims or perpetrators of gangs and gang violence. Ranging in age from 13-52, the experiences of these women and girls highlight lessons for policy makers and those working to prevent serious youth violence.

The research highlighted concerns about the lack of appropriate services available to those females caught up in gangs, the use of sexual violence by gang members, and the impact of serious violence on their sexual and mental health.

Key findings include:

• Very little support is targeted at women and girls involved in gangs, with any female-specific services usually the initiative of individuals rather than planning or policy.
• Girls involved with gang members often live outside of known gang-affected areas, and may hold firearms, drugs or money for their boyfriends.
• Rape, sexual violence and exploitation are significant weapons used against women and girls associated with, or involved in, gangs.
• Convicted female gang members are often held with boys outside of mainstream schools, severely limiting their ability to deal with their offending behaviour and reduce their victimisation.
• Little intelligence exists to quantify the numbers of women and girls affected by gang violence.
• The report assesses the role and effectiveness of statutory and voluntary sector services, especially women’s groups and those working with black and minority ethnic communities, in helping those involved with gangs.
• It highlights ways of supporting women and girls to exit the lifestyle and culture of serious violence – whether as sisters, mothers or girlfriends of gang members, or gang members themselves. The role of local, regional and national policy in supporting this agenda is also examined.

The findings have been discussed in closed roundtables with high level representatives from the police, local authorities, elected representatives and community/voluntary groups across London. This work has led to a number of recommendations, which include:

• Child protection strategies and guidance should be reviewed to ensure they consider specific risks associated with females and serious youth violence, including sexual violence against under-18s.
• Serious youth violence policy and practice should be reviewed to ensure it recognises and acknowledges women and girls in their own right.
• The Corston Review should be replicated for girls under the age of 18 held in establishments that cater for a predominantly male population.
• Policy development and funding across the statutory and voluntary sectors should take into account serious youth violence as a key issue for women and girls.
• Services for women and girls affected by serious youth violence should be specific to their needs.

The Female Voice in Violence (FVV) project develops ROTA’s award winning ‘Building Bridges’ Project, a youth-led investigation into gangs and weapon use in London. The FVV research was conducted during 2008 and 2009 throughout London and consisted of one-to-one interviews, group interviews, discussions with specialist services and roundtables and surveys with BAME and generic women’s organisations. ROTA has worked in partnership to deliver this report.

After this fieldwork, roundtable discussions took place to develop policy recommendations. These were held in Enfield, Hackney, Islington, Lewisham and Southwark, with a pan-London meeting hosted by the Greater London Authority. A further roundtable with central government departments was hosted by the Government Equalities Office.

ROTA is now developing its FVV Coalition to take forward the recommendations of the report. A national research programme is also underway, collecting evidence from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. A further report will follow.

Further info:

Race on the Agenda (ROTA) is one of the UK’s leading social policy think tanks focusing on race equality and issues that affect Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. http://www.rota.org.uk.

Hard copies of the report are available at £25 each. Please contact Liz Carr liz@rota.org.uk

You can read the full press release at http://www.rota.org.uk/pages/WhatsNew.aspx?#H2