Gangs, youth violence, and criminal justice
Updated: Aug 28
We have a long history of working with young people, communities, and public services to understand and respond to gang-related violence in Birmingham.
Our work in this area has combined direct support for young people and families with research into the causes of gang involvement, the effectiveness of interventions, and the way public agencies and community organisations worked together.
Back on Track
Back on Track was a long-term mentoring and support programme developed by brap in partnership with youth charity, Yungstas.
The programme worked with young people aged 10 and over who were at risk of becoming involved with gangs, being affected by gang activity, entering the criminal justice system, or reoffending. Rather than focusing only on offending or risk, the project aimed to build young people's confidence, aspirations, resilience, relationships, and opportunities.
Support included helping young people to:
re-engage with school and education
explore routes into employment and training
build confidence and self-esteem
develop negotiation and social skills
manage conflict and anger
deal with practical problems affecting their lives
Importantly, the programme also worked with parents, siblings, and other family members affected by crime and violence.
Back on Track was originally funded by the Home Office through the Communities Against Gangs, Guns and Knives Fund. From 2013, the work developed into Plan C, delivered with Yungstas and KIKIT PWR and funded by Birmingham City Council. Plan C combined strengths-based mentoring with practical support, recognising that issues such as housing, school exclusion, family relationships, and access to services could not be separated from work intended to reduce young people's involvement in violence.
Researching what works
Our direct experience also informed research into the way Birmingham responded to gang-related crime and violence.
In 2011, there were an estimated 42 urban street gangs in Birmingham, involving around 400 people. Our research, Stuck: Current Approaches to Addressing Gang Crime, examined the interventions intended to support people involved in, or at risk from, gang-related violence. The research was commissioned by the Barrow Cadbury Trust.
We spoke to:
31 people affiliated with gangs
seven voluntary and community sector organisations
three law enforcement agencies
seven independent experts
two academics
The research explored why young people became involved in gangs, but also asked a wider question: how effective was the system designed to respond to them?
It examined the balance between enforcement and prevention, the challenges of multi-agency working, approaches to screening and profiling, and whether young people involved in gangs were sufficiently recognised as people who could themselves be experiencing exploitation, victimisation, and disadvantage.
It also highlighted the importance of involving young people in designing and scrutinising services, identifying and sharing effective practice, and ensuring community-led responses had the resources and stability needed to survive.
Bringing people together
This work formed part of a longer history of brap involvement in debates about race, young people, violence, and criminal justice in Birmingham.
Following the murders of Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis, in 2004 we brought together more than 300 people to discuss race, hip hop, and gang crime. At the time, we were the only organisation in the region convening discussion on these issues at that scale.
We later brought practitioners together to consider the findings of Stuck and explore how responses to gang-related violence could be improved. A seminar supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust involved 35 practitioners from voluntary, public, and private sector organisations across Birmingham and the West Midlands.
What connected the work
Responses to youth violence need to understand the wider circumstances of people's lives, not simply categorise individuals according to risk. Enforcement on its own cannot address the conditions in which violence develops. Young people need to be involved in shaping the services designed for them. Community organisations often possess relationships, knowledge, and credibility that statutory services cannot easily reproduce. And effective intervention requires sustained relationships rather than short-term programmes which disappear just as trust begins to develop.
Those ideas continue to inform brap's wider work on inequality, public services, community engagement, and the experiences of young people.
Related work and publications
Back on Track -- long-term mentoring and support for young people and families affected by gang-related crime.
Plan C A strengths-based mentoring programme combining personal development with practical support.
Stuck: Current Approaches to Addressing Gang Crime - Research examining the experiences of people affected by gangs and the effectiveness of interventions in Birmingham.
Stuck: Stakeholder Views on Gang Crime - A summary of practitioner and expert discussion about improving responses to gang-related violence in Birmingham and the West Midlands.
This page is an archive of brap's previous work in this area. The terminology used in some of the original projects and publications reflects the language of gang and youth violence policy at the time.
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