Viral videos make London seem dangerous - but prevention is working

It’s a simple message, but it’s one that recognises we must not rely on ‘quick-fixes’ and retrospective action alone to tackle the issue.

In London, prevention plays a critical role in tackling the conditions that can lead to a young person being exploited or sucked into a world of violence. Prevention is no longer seen as a ‘nice to have’ or framed solely as a moral argument to tackle violence, but is evidenced as an approach in the capital that works side by side with police enforcement.

Central to this is investing in young people. The impact of not doing so for more than a decade as a result of austerity is plain for all to see. We lost more than 80 youth clubs and over 800 youth workers during that time, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, coincided with an increase in violence and young people losing their lives to a growing knife crime epidemic.

In 2019, the Mayor of London set up London’s Violence Reduction Unit, the first in England and Wales, to pioneer an approach rooted in prevention and early intervention. With the Mayor’s investment and backing, London has been turning the tide by working to build back youth clubs and youth workers and investing more than £100 million in the process.

We’re seeing progress because of this twin approach of prevention, backed up by enforcement. Latest ONS figures to the end of 2025 show a 17 per cent drop in knife crime compared with the previous year, a larger reduction than experienced nationally. Hospital admissions of young people for knife assault, typically seen as a good measure of violence trends because it’s not related to police reports, have also fallen by 20 per cent over a similar period.

This follows figures which show that last year, London recorded the lowest number of homicides of young people this century.

It means as we head into Knife Crime Awareness Week, we are on a more solid footing in knowing what works to keep young people safe. But it also serves as an annual reminder, as if we needed it, that there’s still more to do.

This was no more evident than in the mass ‘link-ups’ that we saw in Clapham recently, in which a large number of young people gathered on the High Street.

The scenes were both entirely unacceptable and deeply disappointing, unquestionably leaving businesses and the community feeling unsafe. It can also feel like a backward step in perceptions of young people and safety in London. We already know there is a gap between the data that shows London is safe in relation to violence, and people’s perceptions of feeling safe.

Without excusing what happened, it’s clear these became mass events because of social media. It also highlights a pressing need to invest in spaces and opportunities for young people to do positive things. Not resting on having already funded activities and opportunities for over a million young people, and the continued prevention work of his VRU, the Mayor has committed to investing a further £30m to boost provision in every London borough. It will help youth clubs open later and longer in the evening and at weekends, not just to keep young people safe, but also to support them with mentoring and give them access to build skills for the future.

If progress on safety is to outweigh perceptions in London, these are positive steps that recognise you have to invest in young people and the vital services they need to move forward.

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Lib Peck is the Director of London’s Violence Reduction Unit.

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