A majority of young people in the UK worry they will be threatened with a knife or mugged in their local area (56% and 50% respectively), a major new report into youth violence and knife crime has found. These findings, from a national representative poll of more than 1,000 16-24-year-olds, is one of the headlines in ‘The Power of Choice’, a study which carried out extensive and wide-ranging polling and focus group research. The project aimed to give voice to those people most affected by youth crime; young people themselves.

The research was carried out by Public First, on behalf of the Kiyan Prince Foundation (KPF). KPF was set up in 2008 by former champion boxer Dr Mark Prince and named after his son, Kiyan, a talented professional footballer who was murdered by a young person with a knife. Kiyan was just 15 and was breaking up a fight outside his school when he was stabbed.

KPF seeks to reduce youth violence by working with at risk young people in the community, in schools and in young offenders’ institutions, using boxing and life coaching to focus on self-discovery, self-discipline and self-coaching to empower young people to make positive choices. It also uses its authentic voice advocating for young people to commission and publish new research and to influence public policy.

The report contains 7 headline findings:

1. Young people feel less safe. A majority of young people worry they will be threatened with a knife or mugged in their local area. In our poll 39% of respondents shared that they felt their local area had become less safe in the past two years and 32% said they had personally witnessed youth crime.
2. The drivers towards youth crime are numerous and diverse, but fear of being a victim, peer pressure, mental health issues and absence of mental health support, and a lack of legitimate routes to earn money, were repeatedly emphasised.
3. Young people feel there are fewer organised activities for them. The absence of available constructive alternatives was consistently raised as a gateway to youth crime. 46% of school-age young people we surveyed spend less time undertaking extracurricular activities than they did a few years ago. Since 2010, more than 4,500 youth work jobs have been cut and 750 youth centres closed. This was as a result of funding to youth services by local authorities in England and Wales seeing a real terms decline of 70% between 2010/11 and 2018/19.
4. To combat the lack of organised activities, young people want more youth centres, especially sports clubs where they can spend their time constructively and where there is a focus on developing a positive mindset. The vast majority of respondents (76%) believed that increasing structured sports programmes would reduce levels of youth crime.
5. Better mental health provision is needed in schools. Young people emphasised this policy solution frequently in terms of being effective in stopping young people becoming involved in youth crime.
6. Increasing the use of external speakers in schools who have relevant lived experience is seen as important by young people, who want authentic and relatable role models.
7. Increasing the number of good quality jobs available to young people is essential. A major pull factor towards youth crime was that it is seen as an easy way to make quick money.

Polling Tables

Public First conducted polling for the Kiyan Prince Foundation (KPF) on the causes of and potential solutions to youth crime. We conducted an anonymous, online survey 1,003 16-24 year olds across the UK from 20th November 2023 to 4th December 2023.

All results are weighted using Iterative Proportional Fitting, or ‘Raking’. The results are weighted by interlocking age & gender and region to be nationally representative of the 16-24 year old age group. Public First is a member of the BPC and abides by its rules. For more information please contact the Public First polling team: polling@publicfirst.co.uk

You can read the full report here and download the polling tables here.