Youth crime is a huge problem for which there are no simple solutions. The Magistrate wanted to give the chance to children to have their say. Children’s Express, spoke to children and teenagers from across London, all of whom had a different story to tell.
| When I was in a gang, I was with all my brethren... when you’re in a gang, no-one messes with you.” |
Alfred, 10: a victim of bullying, North London
It should be every child’s right to feel safe in the area they live. But Alfred, 10, from Islington, is not so lucky.
He’s unable to lead a normal life because for years he’s been the victim of bullying on the council estate where he lives: “I’m too scared to walk around my estate on my own because there’s a group of older kids who bully me.”
He doesn’t even feel safe walking to school on his own, even though it’s only a few minutes down the road: “I’m scared that they’ll be hiding around the corner waiting for me,” he says.
Alfred has good reason to be afraid. He’s been kicked and punched so many times he’s lost count. On one occasion he was so badly beaten, he had to go to hospital in an ambulance.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the boy who beat up Alfred still lives in the same block of flats so his parents will not let him even step foot outside his front door: “They’re worried about me in case I get hurt again.”
It’s understandable that Alfred feels angry. He says it’s not fair that he has to stay inside all the time just because of a bunch of “stupid kids.”
Alfred reckons it’s quite possible that kids like him who get picked on will turn into bullies themselves because it’s one way of dealing with the problem: “I do worry that one day I might end up doing the same kinds of things. If you hang out with bullies, at least you won’t get beaten up,” he says.
But Alfred adds that he also knows that if he did start hanging out with the wrong crowd, he’d probably “get chucked in jail.” So even though it is frustrating that he can’t go out without his big sister always being there, he’d rather stay inside if it means he stays away from the kids on his estate.
We asked Alfred why he thought the young people on his estate liked bullying younger kids. He said it was because there was nothing else to do: “You’re not allowed to play ball games and you can’t use the football pitch anymore. It’s boring for a lot of kids, so they go around beating up other kids.”
“I don’t think the council does enough for us. They could at least fix up our park,” he adds.
Sam, 17 and John, 16: caught up in gang culture, East London
It’s true that gang culture is sometimes glorified in violent films and rap lyrics but is it really the only reason young people are attracted to gangs?
Sam, 17, from Hackney is no longer in a gang but in his early teens he spent three years in one. He found it difficult to explain to us why he first got involved: “You get a little party happening. You might just hang out and…I don’t really know…”
But what Sam does know, is that being in a gang made him feel as though he was a part of something in which he belonged. He liked the closeness and the solidarity: “Gangs are like friends, deep friends, you know what I mean? They’re like proper friends. When I was in a gang, I was with all my brethren.”
As strange as it may sound, for Sam it was also about safety because as he said: “When you’re in a gang, no-one messes with you.”
John, 16, is also from Hackney and like Sam he also got involved with his gang when he was in his early teens. He’s still very much involved with the gang so understandably he was reluctant to tell us too much about what they got up to.
He didn’t have any answers as to why he’d joined but to us John appeared proud of the lifestyle he lead and we noticed that he kept his probation tag on show throughout the interview, as if to remind us he’d been in trouble with the law.
We asked John and Sam if the stories of gang members carrying weapons in the media were just wild exaggerations. Both replied that it was normal to carry them. In fact Sam said he’d carried a knife when he was in a gang but added that if he had still been involved, he’d be carrying a gun by now, because it was the new weapon of choice.
John agreed, adding that if he wanted a gun, he’d have no problems whatsoever in getting a hold of one: “I know people who could easily get me a gun.”
Although Sam has now left the gang, he says he wasn’t able to leave on his own accord. It was only when he got put in a young offenders institute, that he broke ties with them.
John’s never been “put away” but he reckons it’s only because he’s wearing a tag around his ankle: “I’m wearing this so I’ve got to stay out of trouble.” What’s even sadder, is that for John it wasn’t a case of “if” he gets put in prison but “when”:
“I’ll stop when I go to Feltham.”
Jack, 15: picked out for being black, North London
A lot of people believe that the answer to reducing youth crime lies in more policing but for many young people putting more officers on the beat isn’t enough. What’s just as important, if not more so, is that young people are able to relate to police, especially if they’re children and teenagers from ethnic minorities.
Jack, 15 from Holloway has very little faith in the police and for good reason – he’s been stopped more times than he can remember and he’s never committed a crime in his life. It’ll come as no surprise to learn that Jack is black.
“The first time it happened I was only 12-years-old. I’ve been a stopped load of times since then. I don’t know why it happens to me, I just know it happens…it’s probably because I’m black.”
Jack reckons young black men are an easy target for the police because they hang around in large groups. But he says this doesn’t mean they have the right to assume he’s doing something wrong just because he’s hanging out with his mates:
“I don’t carry a knife on me. I’m not doing anything silly, so there’s no way they could arrest me for anything. I just don’t see why they’re bothering me, It’s out of order.”
Since the Stephen Lawrence inquiry the general public have been lead to believe that racism in the police force is being addressed. But Jack is sceptical: I don’t think anything’s changed. There’s still a lot of racism around, it’s jut less obvious.”
“Police officers don’t have respect for teenagers on the street. If anything happened to me, I wouldn’t go to the police because I know they’d treat me more like the criminal than the victim.”
“I’d like the police to just take teenagers on the whole a lot more seriously,” he adds.
Sam, 13: staying away from drugs, East London
Can you imagine being so afraid of the school toilets, you’d prefer to hold on all day long?
As horrible as it sounds, it’s a reality for a lot of young people in London secondary schools. Why? Because it’s a well know fact at some schools that you only go to the toilet if you want to take drugs.
“I never go to the toilets because I’m too scared,” says Sam, 13 from East London.
“There’s gangs everywhere and you know that at my school if you’re going to the toilet you’re most certainly going there to do drugs.”
Sam’s now in Year 9 which means he can leave the school grounds at lunch, so he just waits until then to use the toilet. But when he was in Year 7 and 8 he reckons he’d just hold on for the whole day.
The one time Sam did brave the school toilets he came face to face with a boy in Year 11 who was taking drugs: “He had tin foil and white powder, which looked kind of like chalk. He was smoking it. I looked at him and told him not to worry, that I wouldn’t grass. Then he said ‘Do you want some?’”
Sam was so frightened that the boy would “batter him” he reckons that for a split second he considered accepting his offer but instead just tried to act as though it wasn’t a big deal:
“I just told him next time and then walked out.”
The names in this article have been changed to protect the young people who were interviewed.
About the team
This story was produced by James Jordan 10, Nestor Sayo 11, Samir Pasha 13, Tracey Jordan 14, Ashleigh Jordan 12, Horia El Hadad 16, Fola Egbewole 16. It was published in The Magistrate.
