For Immediate Release [08/02/2012]

After the riots: Enforcement can bring short-term order but will never deliver long-term peace.

Last week, police and local authorities were given new powers to apply for gang injunctions for 14 to 17 year-olds that are intended to stop young people from going into certain areas and force them to take part in rehabilitation activities. Whilst there is growing doubt that these measures could be ever be effectively implemented, of more concern perhaps is the governments ever increasing emphasis on tactical enforcement type measures which they have already admitted cannot bring about a sustainable solution to gang culture: as the Home Secretary, Theresa May, freely admits, “we can’t arrest our way out of the [gang] problem.” So why then do they seem to be trying to do just that?

Patrick Regan, Chief Executive of XLP, says “Tough enforcement alone may appear to work in the short term, but it does not tackle the fundamental drivers of why kids get involved in gangs in the first place. There is no denying that it was enforcement that returned order to our streets in the summer and as recent experience has shown there are certainly times when it is needed. However, it is naïve to think that tactical enforcement measures alone will offer a strategic solution to the complex multiple causes of the violence and stop young people from leaving school and joining gangs. There was no single cause of the violence and riots, and there is no single quick fix solution.

For the thousands who took to the streets it seemed like there was nothing holding them back: no relationships, no jobs, and no future prospects to be put at risk by their actions. Indeed, out of those who were brought before the courts two-thirds had special educational needs, more than one in ten had been permanently excluded from school, and 70% lived in the some of the most deprived areas of the UK. Many of the people rioting felt they had nothing to lose. For too many of our young people, anger and frustration is a default setting. The question we need to ask ourselves now is: Are we giving our young people something to live for?

If your only experience of "community" for the most part has been a combination of poverty, poor housing, family breakdown, addiction, educational failure, crime, violence, gangs and unemployment, then you lose the normal ability to trust, any hope for the future, and your perspective on right and wrong. There is no excuse for unlawful behaviour, but from my eighteen years of working with young people in the inner city, the key to seeing significant and sustainable change is "Relationship." Relationship can restore a young person's trust in people, it can nurture the belief that things can change and an alternative hope for the future is possible, and it acts as a reference point for determining right and wrong. I have witnessed some of the most amazing and courageous life decisions made by young people emerging from the most tragic and hopeless situations, because of a strong and trusted relationship. I’ve seen time and time again, trusted relationships make all the difference and deliver lasting change. Through such a relationship a young person realises that change is possible and in order to see that change happen they begin to work hard and alter their behaviours and attitudes. It takes time, and for the other party in the relationship with the young person, it can be tough - young people can change, but they don't always change quickly or easily!

Don't misunderstand me. I know that enforcement is necessary and I support the aims of Commissioner Hogan-Howe's raid and arrest campaign to deal with those engaging in gang culture and criminality. But as the commissioner himself acknowledges, that is dealing with the consequences. What I am asking for is that the government invest in those people and organisations working relationally to divert or prevent young people joining a gang in the first place. Free those working in our statutory youth organisations from the endless process and paperwork that steals away their valuable time that they would so dearly love to spend developing relationships with young people. Focus more resources into third sector organisations that have proven track records of working with young people in a relational way and steering them away from or back from gang culture. Invest in creating real jobs, training and apprenticeship schemes. Then, if we do these things, maybe we will not need to be debating the rights and wrongs of raid and arrest campaigns; we won't need them.

ENDS

XLP CEO and Author of "Fighting Chance," (Hodder, 2010), Patrick Regan is available for interview.

Photos are available on request.

For further information please contact Aiasha Khalid: email or call +44 (0) 7912 516 065 or call the XLP office on 0208 297 8284.

Notes to editors:

  • In 1996, in response to a stabbing in a school playground, the school’s headmaster asked Patrick Regan, a local church based youth worker, to come into the school and work with their students and teachers to help with difficult behavioural issues
  • This was the beginning of XLP, a Christian charity that has an emphasis on being faith-based, but not faith-biased.
  • Today, on a day-to-day basis, XLP has projects working with over 1000 young people 1-2-1 and in small groups each week and engages with over 12,000 each year.
  • To find out more about XLP, please visit
  • His passion is to see children and young people, from the most deprived and challenging backgrounds, succeed in life - helping them to avoid making wrong choices and to overcome the challenges they face - to realise their amazing potential. To do this he has engaged with politicians and gang members, victims and perpetrators, police, councils and housing associations, and most particularly with the young people themselves and their families.
  • He is the author of two books, the latest being Fighting Chance tackling Britain’s Gang culture and is on the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice.
  • Patrick, who won the Mayor of London Peace Award for Outstanding Contribution to Peace in the Community, is also on the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice and lives with his wife and three children in South-east London.