The government has published plans for “once-in-a-generation” reform of youth justice in England and Wales. The reforms are billed as a blueprint for earlier intervention, more targeted support and addressing the root causes of youth crime.
It’s welcome that the proposals recognise how many children in the youth justice system have grown up with instability, trauma and neglect – and that those in the system often have increasingly complex needs. They also emphasise the importance of trusted relationships with professionals, stronger families and school attendance.
The argument that youth crime is often shaped by complex needs, adversity and missed opportunities for support, maps closely onto what my colleague Jagjit Sandhu and I found in our recent study of young men who have been involved in gangs.
Gang involvement is often discussed in terms of violence, drugs, knives and policing. It can be dangerous, harmful and traumatising, both for young people themselves and for the communities around them. But focusing only on crime misses something important: gangs can also offer belonging, a sense of identity and support for young people. This is often what draws them to get involved in the first place, and what makes it difficult to leave.
Research has long suggested that gang involvement rarely comes from one cause. Young people may be “pushed” towards gangs by poverty, exclusion, victimisation or lack of support, while also being “pulled” by status, protection, identity and belonging. Gangs can offer protection, power, excitement and social support. These are benefits that, for some young people, are felt to outweigh the risks.
Our study, published in the Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice, involved interviews with five young men in London who had current or previous gang involvement. The study explored how they made sense of their life experiences, relationships and sources of support.
Participants described growing up around poverty, violence, family disruption and feeling misunderstood or unsupported by adults and institutions. One young man, Jesse*, recalled times when “there wasn’t no food” and “there was no electric”. Paul described people in his community as “really good people” who sometimes felt their “only choice” was to do something wrong.
But the young men in our study were not only “pushed” by adversity. They were also “pulled” to the gang by relationships that seemed to offer something they could not find elsewhere.
For Paul, closeness came from shared experience. He described his peers as “literally like the same person [as me] but just put in different houses”. John spoke about his fellow gang members as “brothers.” Tom recalled older gang members who “showed me a lot of love” and helped him feel protected. They described these relationships as central to why gang involvement made sense to them at the time.
The young men did not use this to excuse subsequent violence or criminal behaviour. But it helped them explain why they were drawn to the gang, and why leaving was so difficult.
Why early support and relationships matter
This is where the government’s emphasis on early intervention and trusted relationships is important. The white paper presenting the proposals argues that support for children at risk of offending should be “timely, proportionate and holistic”. It should also be joined up across schools, social care, health, youth justice teams and voluntary organisations.
The proposals stress the importance of stable relationships with trusted adults such as mentors, youth workers, teachers, social workers and other professionals. These adults can help children feel safe, regulate emotions and begin to see themselves as someone with a future outside crime.
Our findings support this approach. Some of our participants wanted to move away from gang involvement, but needed help to imagine and build a different life. Tom described contact with professionals through a support service as “like two different worlds”, saying that it changed his “mind state”. Others spoke about mentoring, work, family relationships and new peer groups as helping them find purpose and belonging outside the gang.
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The government’s focus on early intervention is welcome, including the expansion of programmes such as Turnaround, a voluntary support programme for children on the cusp of entering the youth justice system. It also proposes opening more Young Futures Hubs, intended to bring local services together so young people can access opportunities, mental health and wellbeing support, and help to move away from crime, and early support hubs, which offer young people mental health support without needing a GP referral.
Separately, it reiterates Labour’s manifesto commitment for new child criminal exploitation measures, including offence and civil orders aimed at adults who exploit children into criminality. The point is not only to improve outcomes for children who offend – effective early intervention also means fewer victims and safer communities.
But policy also needs to keep listening to young people with lived experience of offending. Their voices can help us understand what support looks like from the inside: what came too late, what felt irrelevant and what made change feel possible.
The need for belonging is not unusual or deviant. It is human. But not all young people have easy access to safe places, trusted adults or meaningful opportunities. YMCA analysis of local authority youth services found that spending has fallen sharply since 2010–11, with fewer council-run youth centres and youth workers than a decade ago.
Research has found crime and violence to be linked to a lack of positive relationships, education and employment opportunities and community support. When these are missing, gangs may fill the gap. Early intervention has to mean understanding what young people are looking for and offering support and opportunities that feel real to them – before gangs become the place they find belonging – and before more people are harmed.
*Names have been changed
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