What is the cause of the increase in serious youth violence?

According to the Youth Violence Commission 2020 the cause is:

A child’s early years, their education, youth services, policing, employment opportunities, and poverty.

Those who committed serious acts of violence had often been subjected to or witnessed domestic violence as children. Many of the same young people had parents who struggled to provide them with the levels of care and attention that were desperately needed.

Many who committed serious acts of violence had been excluded from mainstream education – a process that invariably damaged their self-esteem and identity, while simultaneously closing off avenues for them to pursue healthy and prosocial lives.

Serious problems with the provision of youth services. An extraordinary number of third sector organisations being forced to compete for small pots of short-term project funding, leading to the closure of many and a toxic climate of inadequate and ineffective services.

Cuts to police officer numbers have led to a sharp decline in neighbourhood policing, eroding trust between communities and the police and severely undermining the police’s capacity to gather intelligence and develop effective, long-term solutions to violence.

The prospects of decent and well-paid employment are bleak. The increasing prevalence of low-paid, insecure & fixed-term employment has served to demoralise & alienate a large section of the population, leaving young people vulnerable to exploitation from the illicit drug market.

Many young people are growing up in unsafe and squalid housing. Those living in large cities such as London are often acutely aware of the fact that they are unlikely to be in a position to afford housing in the area in which they grew up.

Young people from the most socioeconomically deprived communities are becoming further demoralised and alienated from society, generating feelings of shame, anger and resentment that lie at the core of many instances of violence.

Poverty and inequality is causing and intensifying many of the problems referred to above and driving a wedge between the wealthiest, who enjoy high levels of security and material luxury, and the poorest, whose lives are characterised by frustration, alienation and insecurity.