New Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) guidance sets out six evidence based recommendations for police leaders to reduce children’s involvement in violence. It draws on international evidence, reviews of policing practice and the experiences of young people affected by violence and policing. YEF’s wider research found that nearly one in five 13 to 17 year olds reported being a victim of violence in the past year, while one in eight reported committing violence, highlighting the scale of children’s exposure to violence. The report recommends:

• Taking a more consistent approach to child centred policing and safeguarding, including treating children as children during police interactions, strengthening safeguarding standards and giving young people meaningful opportunities to shape local policing.
• Prioritising approaches with stronger evidence of reducing violence, including problem oriented policing, while stopping approaches that may increase violence, such as prison awareness programmes and boot camps. Approaches where the impact on violence remains unknown, including knife education programmes, media campaigns and police in schools, should be deprioritised.

Improving stop and search and out of court resolutions, while monitoring and addressing racial disproportionality. YEF notes that Black children are disproportionately affected by violence relative to their share of the population and warns that both over policing and under protection can cause harm.