Knife crime deaths Teens were 'failed by the system'

TEENAGERS who were killed in a spate of knife crime incidents at the start of last year in Bristol were 'failed by the system and by the city, their families have said, after the publication of a wide-ranging review into what lessons could be learned from their deaths.

- Tristan CORK

An independent Thematic Review on Serious Youth Violence has been published which analysed what had gone wrong and what could be improved in the way schools, social services, city leaders, police and health chiefs tackle knife crime and young people.

The review was commissioned following stabbings in Bristol in the first two months of 2024, which saw the murders of Max Dixon and Mason Rist in Knowle West, Darrian Williams in St Judes and a serious attack in the city centre which left a fourth teenage boy with life-threatening injuries all in the space of just a few weeks.

The review did not look directly at the causes and circumstances of the three different incidents, but spoke to the families of the victims, youth workers, teachers, social services, police, health and council chiefs about the wider issue of knife crime among young people in Bristol. It found there was a lack of joined-up working between the different agencies, an issue of school attendance, exclusion and children “slipping through the net” by not attending any form of education was key to the problems, and there were too many forums, agencies, organisations, groups and different authorities working in the area with not enough people working together to support young people.

The review found information about children at risk, gathered by a range of different organisations from youth workers and teachers to police and social services, was not properly shared, so while good work was being done in places to support young people and prevent them from going down the route of gangs and knife crime, it was not joined up with poor communication.