Young people involved in violence ‘lack hope for future’, MSPs told

Young people involved in violence “lack hope and optimism for the future”, MSPs have heard.

The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee at Holyrood is considering a petition which would urge the Scottish Government to take more steps to end violence among young people.

Giving evidence to the committee on Wednesday, Emily Beever – a senior development officer for YouthLink Scotland – said the lives of those the organisation had spoken to were “woven” with violence, having both been perpetrators and victims.

“We know that young people also lacked any hope and optimism for the future, they didn’t have that and therefore they felt that was it, this was their lot in life, it was always going to be like this,” she said based on work her organisation has undertaken, most recently focusing on young girls.

“So until we have that positive future for them, they felt as if there was nowhere else for them to go.”

The causes of violence, Ms Beever added, were multi-faceted, ranging from loyalty to their peers or their family as well as a lack of support from adults.

“There were young people who were very loyal to their friends, which meant that they also got involved in fights,” she said.

“They felt they didn’t have a lot of trusting adults – they said explicitly ‘teachers don’t care’ until it’s a crisis point, until it’s a fight – so they really didn’t feel like they were getting support.

“There were young people who were really fiercely protective of their families.

“Family is a real trigger point for violence, for example if someone had said something about someone’s family, but also that some families condoned violence.

“I think there was a lot of pressure on these young people from all these different arenas and that culminated in violence in some shape or form.”

Ms Beever said YouthLink Scotland was focusing on supporting young people – especially girls – to create trusting relationships with adults who can support them.

Violence perpetrated by young people – primarily in schools – has come to the fore in recent months, with teaching unions raising concerns on behalf of their members, but the committee was told there was no evidence to substantiate an increase.

Will Linden, the deputy head of unit and head of analysis at the much-praised Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU), said it was “very difficult” to say if there has been an increase in youth violence, adding: “From a policing and recorded crime perspective, we’re not really seeing that, but that’s maybe due to recording issues.

He added that there was a “feeling” violence was increasing but not to a “catastrophic level”, saying the problem could still be helped by intervention.

Community policing inspector Jonathan Watters said the data did not support an increase, although there had been a spike following the pandemic.