A multi-agency consensus panel examining synergies and differences between evidence-based approaches to violence reduction in England

Abstract

Background Many approaches to violence reduction are currently being applied across England. As interest in contextual and thematic responses to violence has increased, so have questions about the relationship between approaches that seek to affect the environments in which violence occurs. We sought to outline the collective potential of three of the most common approaches (contextual safeguarding, public health, and problem-solving policing) and produce an instrument to help practitioners to understand how could these approaches be used collectively at a local level.Methods Colleagues with expertise in, or who were national leads for, public health, contextual safeguarding, and problem-solving approaches formed a professional consensus panel to define the three approaches in practice, the steps required to combine them, and the benefits and challenges of each. The group met virtually for 90-120 min/month between September, 2020, and March, 2021. A panel consensus was reached about how to describe each approach. Ideas were developed and refined independently between meetings through application of approaches to case studies and model development. A practitioner toolkit that set out the findings of the group was co-produced by the professional consensus panel. The practitioner toolkit was distributed to and presented at professional networks. Local authorities were invited to pilot a combined system reform approach, to check how combining the approaches might work in practice.Findings One of the major findings was that theoretical approaches are often not used as intended by those who created them. The panel showed the similarities and co-dependencies of the approaches and proposed models of using them together in practice. The production of a practitioner toolkit has clarified what the fundamentals of each approach are and provided a space where similarities and differences can be seen. The practitioner resource has received positive feedback and discussions have started in one local authority area to pilot a system approach.Interpretation To our knowledge, this is the first time a collection of approaches has been brought together to understand their collective benefit in potentially reducing violence. This work provides a foundation for a pilot intervention to assess the effect of combining these approaches on reducing violence.Funding This project has not received funding from any external organisation or group. The organisations involved have given leave to their members to attend meetings and engage in work related to this group. The South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit provided funds to commission a graphic artist to support the presentation of this project.

Police practitioner views on the challenges of analysing and responding to knife crime

“…There are many affinities between a problem-oriented and a public health approach to policing (see Christmas & Srivastava, 2019;Davey et al, 2021): both are dedicated to using data and information sources to identify and analyse persistent and preventable problems; both draw on similar problem-solving processes 7 ; both emphasise prevention, eschewing over-reliance on enforcement and the criminal justice system, and both are committed to evaluating the impact of selected interventions on the problem of interest. The two approaches are not identical, however, having developed independently and with different emphases.…”