Forgotten victims

They are often portrayed as offenders, but young people are also the most likely victims of crime. JohnPlummer finds out how an Enfield-based project is helping them.

Aaron Knight was beaten up by three bullies at school last year. He suffered a broken wrist and consider­able trauma. While the offenders were dealt with by the local youth offend­ing team, so too was Aaron.

He was invited to attend Britain's first centre dedicated solely to young victims of crime. In a converted three-bedroom police flat in Enfield, north London, he and other young victims aged six to 18 receive counseling and have the chance to take part in activi­ties such as photography, computer skills, cooking, music, drama, singing, self-defense and day trips.

When Aaron, 14, first went along his school attendance record was 12 per cent. "I used to bunk off school a lot but since I've been going to the centre my attendance has gone up to 58 per cent," he says. "I usually go once every two weeks and it cheers me up. Some of the other people go to my school and we've become friends."

There is growing evidence that young people suffer more crime than anyone else. According to Victim Sup­port, one in four 12- to 16-year-olds are affected each year.

Yet it's difficult to find people tak­ing the issue seriously. The Home Of­fice's annual UK crime survey doesn't even include under-16s.

The YPAC centre — an abbre­viation of "young people affected by crime" — is one of the first organisa­tions to focus on this area. It wants to balance the support given to offenders and young victims of crime, the latter of which are often ignored.

The flat, which is next door to Southgate police station, is rent free. The Children's Fund contributes £24,000 annually and Enfield Youth Offending Team and the local council provide £35,000 of statutory funding. Police charity Child Victims of Crime also helps out on an ad hoc basis.

The project involves six youth of­fending professionals and 20 volunteers, including members of Victim Support and the British Red Cross, who help with counseling and first-aid tuition. Of 34 young victims in­vited by the youth offending team, 16 attend. There are 155 youth offending teams in Britain.

Youth offenders redecorated the building and they could be involved again. Both Creitzman, who is a justice practitioner, and Keith Napthine, his manager at Enfield Youth Offend­ing Team, believe strongly in the value of reuniting victims and offenders.

However, it isn't always appropriate. "The offenders have to show remorse," says Creitzman. "In Aaron's case, that hasn't happened and it would run the risk of revictimising him."

Napthine, who estimates Y-PAC could help up to 250 young victims each year, believes restorative justice has wider benefits. "Statistics show victimization can lead to offending, so we are nipping it in the bud," he says. The Edinburgh study of youth transi­tions and crime, which has been track­ing 4,300 young people who started secondary school in 1998, provides the most powerful evidence for this.

The study suggests that being a vic­tim of crime at the age of 12 is one of the most powerful indicators that a child will offend at 15. Conversely, 12-year-old offenders run a high risk of being victims at 15.

David Smith, professor of criminol­ogy at Edinburgh University, is lead­ing the study. He says: "People think, of crime as random but many offences emerge out of relationships of people who know each other."

Victims and offenders, he says, often share similar backgrounds and personalities. "If a young person spends lots of time in clubs or amuse­ment arcades there is a good chance they will become victims or offend­ers," he says.

Although the Y-PAC centre is be­lieved to be unique in having a building dedicated solely to victims, other organisations support young victims. Victim Support has appointed a work­er in Croydon to visit young victims at school.

The Howard League for Penal Reform runs a citizenship and crime project in schools, which includes a crime quiz, an introduction to the criminal justice system and a court­room role-play initiative. The aim is to raise awareness of the consequences of crime, tell them about their rights and responsibilities and to encourage them to have a greater say in society.

Students are given a form with a list of crimes and asked to tick whichever ones they have suffered. Astonishingly, between 97 per cent and 99 per cent tick at least one category. Slowly, it is beginning to hit home that crime does not just affect more young people than originally thought, but that it is growing up.

By drawing attention to the lack of services, the Y-PAC centre believes it has already made an impact.

John Plummer

/ From Young People Now, №2, 2006/