Young People in gangs
learning from current data and
practice
Lorraine Khan, Associate Director,
Children and Young People Programme
A need to belong: what
leads girls to join
gangs?
Key messages
Girls in gangs are
much more vulnerable than other young women
who get into trouble
vulnerable in many different ways
vulnerable throughout their lives
Data and literature
review
8029 Young people screened across 37 sites
80 young women identified with gang associations
Tracking 28 risk factors and health difficulties
Comprehensive review of the literature
Girls in gangs: multiple
vulnerabilities
Table 2: breakdown of average number of
vulnerabilities per capita
General youth
justice entrant
Female
entrants
Boys with gang Girls with gang
associations
associations
2.9
3.7
7.0
9.5
Girls in gangs have higher numbers of multiple
vulnerabilities
Family based risk factors
Girls in gangs are…
5 times more likely to have parent in prison
3 times more likely to have parent with mental
health/substance misuse problems
Nearly 4 times more likely to have sibling involved in
anti-social behaviour
More than 3 times more likely to experience neglect
and family conflict
Relationships
Girls in gangs - 4.5 times
more likely to experience
poor relationships
Victimisation
Girls in gangs are…
4 times more likely to be bullied
3 times more likely to be physically abused
3 times more likely to have been sexually
abused
and to have sexual health problems
Mental health and well
being
40% had signs of early starting behavioural
difficulties
Most common and damaging childhood mental
health problem
What behaviour?
Over 4 times more likely to have run away
28% had been excluded
62% involved in aggression/violent acts
Nearly 3 times more likely to be using drugs/alcohol
Over 5 times more likely to be involved in risky sexual
activity
Early behavioural
problems affect
children’s life chances
Mental health and well
being
A third had patterns of self-harm or suicide
risks
A quarter had a diagnosable mental health
difficulty
A third had experienced bereavement
A third had sleeping/eating problems
Need a two pronged
strategy
1. Prevention is better than cure
2. But when girls join gangs - need safe and
gender-specific exit pathways
What are the clues?
Early starting behavioural problems
School non attendance and exclusion
Early sexualised behaviour/staying away from home
Repeat presentation with sexual health problems
Violence
Parents
in prison
using substances or with mental health problems
Sibling, family or boyfriend involved in gang
From gang involved estate
Poor relationships/bullying/low self esteem
Prevention priorities
All sector commitment - making every contact count
Reduce maltreatment/neglect and build resilience
Intervene early at the first signs of poor child mental
health – early behaviour is important
Evidence-based outreach approaches
Girls enter gangs for
different reasons…
So they need different routes out which…
create safe female spaces and safe exit pathways
make use of and help build positive attachments
support self-esteem, aspiration and empowerment
address histories of victimisation and trauma
Effective commissioning
Family Nurse Partnerships
Good quality targeted pre school education
Primary school
Systematic tracking of well being
Aspiration and esteem and asset building
Easy access, relational based/gender sensitive, outreaching and
engaging support in schools/communities
Big sister, Big Brother programme
Multi systemic therapy/Functional Family Therapy
Multi dimensional fostering treatment
Well timed trauma-based interventions
Positive and safe relationships
Challenges in
the system
Austerity
measures are
affecting early
intervention and
prevention…
And yet…
Without prevention,
these girls…
drift into high costs
services
carry forward legacies
of disadvantage and
victimisation
Impact on community
well-being
Summary
Girls in gangs are:
highly vulnerable and costly
They need:
whole-system, preventative, and life-course
approaches to:
help them flourish
reduce accumulation of risk
gender-specific, evidence -based and safe exit routes
should they end up in gangs
Emerging issues from
evaluation of the
London Integrate model
Dr Charlie Howard’s
model: Integrate model
Street Therapy© for young people involved in gangs
Patient and flexible engagement
relationships
co-production and empowerment
Highly outreaching and flexible
Strength and resilience-based
Promoting life opportunities
Builds bridges to/strengths in systems/communities
surrounding young people
Weaves therapeutic responses into youth work approaches
Lessons from interim
evaluation
Mental well being
34 young people – TAG screened
Point 1: 90% of individuals scored highly on risk to or from others
30% reduction in severity of mental health presentation by point 2
(Statistically
significant)
Longer contact time = better mental health outcomes
47% of young people displayed levels of distress above clinical cut-off
General hypersensitivity to admitting vulnerability
Other important
findings
Exclusion from school was a critical turning point
for these young men – big regret.
Should evidence-based employment opportunities
(IPS - place and support) be adapted for gang
involved young men?
Gang projects struggle to get systematic and
accurate police/offending data to assess shifts in
offending - critical to assess cost effectiveness
A different language
Have different vocabulary for describing well being
Hyper sensitive to admitting vulnerability
Have different language:
Flight/fight – ‘chilled’ versus ‘stressed’.
Feelings of risk and safety - Toxic stress?
Described a beneficial process of ‘knowing themselves’
through the project.
Beneficial aspects of the
model
Aspects of project seemingly benefitting their mental health:
Recovery approach
Hope
Agency
Opportunity
Empowerment and purposeful activity
Practical help
Psychologically informed environment (PIE):
being in positive environment and having contact with calm,
encouraging, positive people, modelling
Some prompt talking therapy – some don’t.
How young people
describe the therapeutic
benefits
It’s a place for young people to get away, that’s what I seen it as.
Even if it is once or twice a week, it’s a break from life. As well as it
not just being a break, you know, they help people, know yourself. For
a lot of people round here it’s not easy knowing yourself , or knowing
what you want to do as a person; so I think coming here and doing
different things, people learn a lot about themselves and they learn
what they like and what they don’t like and stuff like that.
I'm managing, I'm coping a lot better than I would have, a lot better
than I would have [before coming here], for example these [setbacks
I told you about] … would have stressed me out so much and I'd have
got angry about it, I'd have got so angry about it, but now I've learnt
there's no point in getting angry about it, it happened to hundreds of
people across Britain, it's not just me.
Some practice
implications
Need Recovery approach for gang involved young men?
These young men get angry at lack of sustainability of projects
‘pilot’ fatigue
increases distrust
Real job opportunities (with in placement support) are critical
School exclusion should prompt multi sector prevention
Police outcome data is critical
Thank you
lorraine.khan@centreformentalhealth.org.uk