_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Our recently published report, Policing after Lockdown: Rebuilding Relationships with the COVID Generation, explores one of the most pressing challenges for contemporary policing: how to repair and strengthen relationships between young people and the police in resource-deprived communities. The findings come from our Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) funded project examining young people’s perceptions of policing in the post-pandemic landscape.

Previous evidence points to a history of police targeting young working-class people from communities enduring the impacts of poverty, what McAra and McVie (2005) called the ‘usual suspects’ or the ‘unrespectables’. This is important because we know that early experience of the criminal justice system can have what is called a ‘criminogenic’ effect, creating a vicious cycle of repeated involvement with the law. This can result in young people experiencing negative knock-on effects in various aspects of their lives, with adverse impacts on education and future opportunities, for example. These stressors then put young people at greater risk of offending, with opportunities to move on in life becoming more limited.

In order to undertake our research, we focused on two neighbourhoods in Scotland: one in Edinburgh and one in Dundee. These communities were known to the research team as there had been regular disturbances in both, and both are significantly impacted by poverty. The research was conducted in three stages:

Stage One: World Café with practitioners in both communities – police officers, school staff and youth workers. This was to support understanding of the issues impacting young people.
Stage Two: Group interviews with young people in both communities who had interactions with the police.
Stage Three: World Café with practitioners again to respond to our findings in stage two and to collect their insights.

One of the key findings of our research was the deepening of poverty in both communities, with practitioners noting an increase in demand for food, clothing and support relating to the presentation of young people themselves. The stressors associated with such deep levels of poverty, or in some cases destitution, are an ideal breeding ground for mistrust in professionals, including the police, as well as pushing people towards criminality. As such, it is perhaps no surprise that our research also highlights a simple but critical message: that trust amongst these young people in the police remains low, with some describing feelings of hostility, fear, mistrust and/or disconnection from local officers. Young people told us that they do not have relationships with police officers. Others noted that they do see police around, in schools for example, but felt little effort was made to engage with them and build relationships.

Importantly, however, our research shows that young people’s communities are not defined solely by deprivation or difficulty. Despite the challenges they face, many describe their neighbourhoods as supportive, tightly connected places where friends and family matter deeply. These strong local networks provide a foundation for rebuilding positive relationships with authority. They also act as a reminder that any attempt to strengthen police-community relations must start from an understanding of the lives young people actually lead, not the stereotypes and stigmatisation that are often imposed upon them.

A key plank of this, and one of our key recommendations, would be ensuring that officers working in resource-deprived communities are able to undertake poverty awareness training. We know that many officers have already undertaken training in trauma-informed practice. We recommend that this continues to be rolled out, as well as monitoring how it is implemented. Fourteen years ago, McAra and McVie (2012) wrote that:

…young people involved in the most serious and persistent offending are amongst the most victimised, vulnerable, and traumatised groups in society and are not responsible for the many structural deficits (including poverty) which suffuse their lives (p. 387).

Our research suggests that little has changed. However, arguably, Scotland has a tradition of taking a more holistic approach to young people involved in crime. The Kilbrandon approach remains a cornerstone of Scotland’s response to children and young people who come into contact with the criminal justice system, particularly those from more marginalised backgrounds. Rooted in the principle that young people who offend are often in need of care and protection, it advocates for a welfare-based, child-centred model rather than a punitive one. Interestingly, from the police side in our research, there was an appetite for relationship-building with young people, but the consistent message was a lack of resources. We know that relationship-building takes time and consistency, and these are two elements that are currently in short supply. The new model of community policing currently being rolled out across Scotland is designed to free up community officers to be just that – officers focused on the community within which they are working. This offers promise, but time will tell if it will be adequately resourced to allow officers the capacity to build and maintain relationships across the communities they work alongside.

As such, short of the sort of structural change that could address the glaring inequalities we see in our society today, we argue that poverty awareness training and trauma-informed practice could go some way towards supporting an approach that meets young people with empathy rather than suspicion. Additionally, working alongside young people and listening to their voices in terms of how policing is conducted would support greater understanding on both sides. Working in genuine partnership with young people, youth workers and other professionals could offer a more relational, context-sensitive model of engagement: one that recognises young people not as potential threats, but as citizens whose knowledge and experience of their everyday realities deserve to be taken seriously. Such an approach not only has the potential to reduce harmful interactions and rebuild trust, but also to lay the groundwork for a form of policing that is more legitimate, accountable and ultimately more effective because it is rooted in principles of social justice and mutual respect.

If policing is ultimately about service and safety, then relationships are its foundation. As this study makes clear, young people, especially those in these communities, are more than ready to tell us what they need to feel safe, respected and included. The task now is to listen, to act and to build those bridges together.