Nathan Samuels

A YOUTH worker has said that a shifting culture is to blame for more girls being referred to the youth justice system.

Nathan Samuels, the lead youth worker at LIFT youth club in Angel, said he had witnessed girls being involved in more physical altercations in recent years.

He was speaking following publication of recent inspection report into Islington’s Youth Justice Service (YJS) that said a fifth of 15- to 17- year-olds in the system this year are girls – compared to 6 per cent the year before.

Mr Samuels said: “I can see the change in how aggressive these young women are. They’re using the same language and have the same attitude that normally you would associate with the boys.

“It’s this youth culture which has shifted, and I think these young girls are at the forefront of it. A lot of things boys are doing are to impress girls, and I think a lot of the things girls are doing is to impress girls.”

Mr Samuels said he feared violence had become normalised in young people’s minds by posts on social media. “You don’t see people waving money in videos any more, you see them with weapons,” he said.

“Twenty years ago you’d walk around an estate and a gang would be trying to sell you drugs. Now, no one’s got anything to sell you, they’re just standing there with weapons. For young people, making money isn’t even the objective, it’s being dangerous.”

The report added that the YJS has “proactively analysed the reasons for this increase and used this to inform its approach to working with girls”, but did not elaborate on this.

Mr Samuels said, in his experience, young women were likely to be rehabilitated more quickly than young men.

He said: “I think young women normally turn it around quicker than the boys, they get bored of it quicker than the boys, and with support they get over it even quicker. It’s easier for them to realise that this isn’t the life for them, and when they’re taken out of that environment, they see it quicker.”

The report hailed Islington’s YJS as “outstanding”, and praised the “proactive and frequent” communication between professional networks within Islington as they planned the best course of action for children at risk of offending or re-offending.

Mr Samuels said that strong links between community youth workers, social workers and the police were key to protecting young people, and fostering trust when they did get into trouble.

He said: “If we have a young person that comes to LIFT regularly and gets in trouble, we know their social workers and whatever team that’s working with them, we’re part of that team, there’s nothing that doesn’t get shared with us.”

Mr Samuels added: “If there’s a young person who hasn’t been home in five days, we have the relationships with young people to find out where they are. They trust us in a way they might not trust other people. We’re bridging the gap. We’re the connective glue.”

He added that for young people with youth workers in their lives, the outcomes after they became involved with the police were often better.

Mr Samuels said: “A kid that’s naughty who has professionals in his life, when the police get involved, they get in touch with them, with us, we all have a meeting to decide what’s worth pursuing. We do everything we can so that that person doesn’t go to prison.”

He added: “Someone who is caught stealing from a shop, there’s always questions to be answered. Why are they doing that? If they’re stealing food, is it because they don’t have enough food to eat? I do think Islington have got it better than other boroughs.”