Page 43 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

2.40 Being placed on the GVM can have negative consequences for an individual,
even if they are considered low risk. For example, the MPS is known to share
the names of children with other public bodies such as job centres, social
services, and schools. We have heard that in these instances, the MPS will
refrain from providing crucial contextual information, such as the harm/risk
score, the reasons for being on the GVM or whether the child is considered a
victim or perpetrator of gang violence. We also understand that this
information sharing can go both ways. The Department for Work and Pensions
was one of the first places in which the government placed gang advisers, who
work with children and young adults to move away from gang life. 124 We
understand that in one year, it identified more gang members than the police.

2.41 As a result, many of those named on the GVM, as well as their families, have
been denied housing, excluded from school (pursuant to ‘zero tolerance
policies’, which may even impact their close friends) 125 and refused job
opportunities. 126 The policy inflexibly portrays all those involved in gangs as
dangerous and requiring a tough criminal justice response to desist. This
approach is particularly inappropriate with respect to children, whose welfare
should take primacy. One of the stated purposes of the GVM is to safeguard
vulnerable children at risk of exploitation. It is impossible to see how this can
be achieved where victims and perpetrators are not clearly defined in the
GVM. 127

2.42 The danger of these approaches is that it can serve to marginalise and
criminalise BAME people, particularly those at a young age. This, ironically,
makes criminal behaviour more likely, and the pull of gangs stronger. In

124 Ibid, p. 25.
125 Just for Kids Law & Children’s Rights Alliance for England, Excluded, exploited, forgotten:
Childhood criminal exploitation and school exclusions, (August 2020), details how schools often
excluded children for activities resulting from exploitation from gangs, leading to a deepening of their
exploitation.
126 For instance, in 2017, Tower Hamlets Council and the MPS established Operation Continuum. This
programme aims to create a hostile environment for those suspected of drug dealing, which includes the
denial of housing. See also A. Mistlin, ‘Hundreds of charges in ‘Operation Continuum’ drug dealer
crackdown’, East London Times, 15 November 2019.
127 “a lot of people [are] being labelled gang members who are not”, Amnesty International, Trapped in
the Matrix, (2018), p. 11.

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