Almost half of teenagers are victims or witnesses of violence, study warns

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) has released its second annual report on children, violence and vulnerability, based on a survey of 7,574 teenagers aged 13 to 17 across in England and Wales.

The report revealed the high rates of children’s exposure to violence, as 47 per cent said they had been a victim or witness to violence in the past year. Additionally, 48 per cent of those who committed violence were also victims.

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Social media was found to have contributed to the number of children seeing violence, as 60 per cent had seen real world acts of violence online, typically content showing fights between children and young people.

The effects of this exposure to violence were also found to be wide reaching with 47 per cent of children reporting that the fear of violence impacted their day to day life.

Some 20 per cent told researchers that they had skipped school in the past 12 months because they felt unsafe.

However, children typically did feel safe in other areas with high adult supervision, such as parks, at home or on public transport. When asked why they committed acts of violence, half of children said it was because they had been provoked, and 62 per cent of children also thought that drugs and gangs were a major driving factor in violence.

In response to the report, children’s commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza said: “I am deeply concerned by the findings of this report, which clearly show that children and young people are increasingly being exposed to violence. I want to make sure that we are listening to children to find out what is making them feel unsafe both at school and elsewhere and start to find positive, practical solutions to tackle this.”

The report also reveals that the safety of children differs depending on location, as 25 per cent of children in London said they’d been a victim of violence compared with 12 per cent in the South East.

Meanwhile, 31 per cent of children who said their families uses foodbanks report being victims of crime. 

Former children’s commissioner for England, and current chair of the Commission on Young Lives, Anne Longfield said: “This survey is deeply concerning. Half of teenagers have witnessed violence or harm and a third of teenagers who have a social worker or whose families rely on food banks have been a victim of violence. A generation of children are growing up feeling unsafe, with diminished life chances as a result.

"We need a new national plan to protect young people at risk of violence and exploitation which supports them to succeed."

This comes as the Home Office and YEF are set to invest £5.8m to assess how trauma-informed practice can protect children against violence.