Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine

Biography

Biography: Isabel Straw

Abstract

Background: In 2017 the UK saw a 22% increase in crime with knives and sharp weapons. Since then there have been 37 deaths from stabbings, 11 of which were teenagers. Admission to hospitals with stabbing injuries is at its highest rate for 7 years, with a shift towards younger victims: the youngest victim being just 13.

Methods: As a team of doctors running health workshops at ‘Community Action for Asylum Seekers and Refugees’ (CARAS) in London, we have access to a ‘hard to reach’ cohort of teenagers. Our team undertook qualitative research drawn from an educational session focused on knife crime and CPR. Participants were recruited on a voluntary basis to join a practice session and discussion that explored perceptions of knife crime in an informal setting. Sixteen boys took part, aged twelve to seventeen, who were predominantly from east Africa. Two hour-long semi-structured interviews were used to explore the perspectives, ideas and knowledge surrounding street violence.

Findings and Interpretations: Four researchers undertook a thematic content analysis of the session transcripts. The most commonly vocalized ideas were extracted from this data resulting in three key identified themes: distrust of public services, a lack of knowledge of the justice system and differing perspectives on the underlying causes of crime. Interpreting these results suggested anxieties around the role of the police were heightened due to children’s experience within the asylum system. Similar to previous youth work on knife crime, common misconceptions about the consequences of knife violence were elicited. Our study highlights gaps in unaccompanied minors knowledge, potential areas of vulnerability and the need for targeted public health interventions to support these teenagers. IS, HF & FH developed the experimental design, JD contributed to post interview filtering of transcripts and MT & NK contributed to the