Addressing the Safety and Criminal Exploitation of Vulnerable Young People: Before, During and After COVID-19 and Lockdown

This chapter is discussing the intersection of what is arguably an epidemic, and a pandemic, both of which can be fatal. In recent years there has been an epidemic in youth violence and crime, particularly in East London, and in the London Borough of Newham, where knife crime cases and youth knife injuries in particular have been consistently higher than comparator boroughs and London as a whole between 2013 and 2017. The chapter discusses in some detail the pre-pandemic Newham Keeping Safe (hereafter NKS) intervention aimed at vulnerable teenagers, proposing how this type of intervention could be adapted to the changing conditions of COVID-19 restrictions, and exploring the broader psychosocial implications for future interventions that aim to reduce the criminal exploitation of vulnerable young people, as we ‘open up’, or, at least, travel through new sets of changing conditions and restrictions. Such an endeavour requires that we reflect on what future levels of social distancing combined with more digital connections and practices could mean. Future interventions, we argue, need to include a reflection on the complex needs of children and families, and fathom the impact of interventions and their future post-COVID-19.