Talk Back: young people and crime

Bali, Graham, Jackie, Will and Chris

We joined forces with Usborne Publishing for an event bringing together Bali Rai and debut young adult crime novelist Chris Ould with a stellar panel to discuss young people, writing and crime.

As our Booktrust online writer in residence earlier this year, one of Bali Rai's key areas of focus was encouraging teens and young adults to participate in the wider debate around books and reading. As part of his residency, he chaired a fantastic panel event at the London Book Fair, bringing teenage readers face to face with authors and publishers to discuss how young people are portrayed in books, and what they look for in the books they read.

The event provoked a huge amount of interest and discussion, so we were delighted when Usborne Publishing approached us with the idea of joining up on a follow-up revent at the Free Word Centre linked to a new young adult crime novel they published this month: Street Duty: Knock Down, by Chris Ould.

TALK BACK brought together Bali with Chris, who is also a screenwriter for television series such as Casualty and The Bill to discuss the subject of youth crime, including how young people are portrayed in books and the media.  Joining the two authors on the panel were Jackie Malton, ex-DCI and real life role model for Helen Mirren’s character DCI Jane Tennison in the television series Prime Suspect. Jackie is the Chair of Trustees for the Youth Empowerment Crime Diversion Scheme, an initiative founded by her friend, colleague and fellow panelist at the event Graham Godden to promote a positive change in the attitudes of young people, and to support the process of rehabilitation and resettlement of ex-offenders.

Graham, who himself spent 18 years in jail, is to date the only ex-offender to obtain The Professional Certificate of Effective Practice in Youth Justice – a qualification exploring the youth justice system in England and Wales. His work with young people in the area of crime diversion has given him a deep understanding of what is working – and what isn’t – in the pursuit of reducing youth crime. Joining all four on the panel was Will Morgan, a sixth form student at St Marylebone School, bringing the perspective of a young person into the discussions.

Bali kicked off the conversations by asking Chris about why he had decided to write a crime novel for young adults. Chris explained that he felt disillusioned with many of the adult crime novels around, which seemed 'jaundiced' and were written for a well-established existing market.

Bali explained that one of the things that had originally excited him about the book was that it was described as 'gritty'. Bali noted that he feels there is still very little genuinely 'gritty' writing for teens and young adults - this kind of content is only tolerated up to a point, and there are still some things, such as 'swearing for the sake of swearing' that make gatekeepers such as teachers and librarians uneasy.

Growing up in London, you're surrounded by all that every dayWill spoke about his own response to Street Duty, which for him was ‘in some ways, quite tame.’ 'Growing up in London, you're surrounded by all that every day,' he explained, noting that even though he lived a relatively sheltered life, he was used to seeing criminality around him - in particular, drug use. However he noted that this may be because he has grown up in London and in fact the book might seem more gritty to teenagers living outside the capital. The panel all agreed that young people's experiences around the country are often very different.

Partly for this reason, Chris decided to set his book in and around a fictional estate in the imaginary town of Weston. Chris touched on the difficulty of taking on the task of accurately reflecting young people’s experiences: he chose a fictional setting and tried to avoid using slang so that readers from different backgrounds would not feel excluded. Some further discussions arose about how writers can approach the challenge of accurately representing young people’s experiences, whilst also creating a good story.

1 in 4 crimes are committed by teenagers

Jackie and Graham had some fascinating insights to offer based on their own experiences of working within the justice system. Jackie noted that although the Trainee Police Officer scheme at the centre of Chris's book is fictional, the characters and situations were familiar to her from her own experience both in the police and working with offenders in prisons. She spoke about the disproportionate number of crimes committed by teenagers and young people – around 1 in 4 of all crimes are committed by teenagers, the vast majority of whom are male. These crimes tend to be 'acquisitive' offences such as burglary, shop-lifting or mugging: Jackie suggested that this may be in part because of the importance of image and consumerism within today's society, which is a big influence on many young people.

Graham spoke about the challenges he faced trying to engage young people who were at risk of offending, or were already offenders. As ex-offenders, he and his team are best placed to bring the reality of crime home to young offenders, helping to make them aware that they have choices and options and to raise their self-esteem. Graham emphasised the challenge of talking about crime when everyone has such different perspectives, attitudes and beliefs – and the positions of offenders, the police, victims and the government can all be radically different.

Discussions soon moved on to encompass how young people are portrayed by today's media. Will spoke about the stereotypical view of teenagers as either 'gang members or choir boys', noting how adeptly Chris has blurred this boundary in Street Duty. Widening the discussions out to include the audience, some of the young people attending spoke passionately about their own varied responses to the book, as well as how they felt the media portrayed teenagers.

Altogether the event raised some fascinating questions about the role youth crime plays in teenagers' lives today, as well as how it is represented in books for young adults, and the media more broadly. Thanks to Usborne, Bali, Chris and all our panellists, as well as our lively audience of young people, for some thought-provoking and insightful discussions.

Read our list of recommended young adult crime novels