We've Got Your Boy

In the fifth and final episode of our investigative podcast series We’ve Got Your Boy, we explore the role of love in addressing the issues underpinning serious youth violence in Bristol and beyond. We look at why plans to transform the youth justice system are stalling with the opening, and then sudden closure, of the country’s first ‘secure school’ – a unit and long term government plan that cam...

Before starting this series, we held a roundtable discussion with experts in the field of youth justice. We spoke about serious violence among young people, the root causes of it, and how it's represented in the media. Media outlets have lots to learn when it comes to rebuilding trust with the communities they serve, including young people. As does the criminal justice system, and the institutions...

The murder of James Bulger in 1993 by two 10-year-old boys was an horrific act of violence that essentially led to a huge change in the country’s youth justice system: the abolition of the legal term doli incapax (meaning incapable of evil). It meant that children as young as 10 were now deemed capable of committing crime – before then it was 14. Since this shift, England and Wales to this day has...

After a spate of serious youth violence last year, a wide-ranging review was launched by the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership – a group of organisations including the city council and police. Researchers gathered information local services held about 10 young people who were involved in three different incidents – including those connected to the murders of three teenage boys, Max Dixon, Mason Ris...

Episode 1: Hurt people, hurt people In early 2024, three teenage boys were fatally stabbed on Bristol’s streets within 18 days. It was a grim start to the new year – one that thrust the issue of serious youth violence in the city further into the spotlight. What followed was a very public response from Bristol’s institutions – the police, the city council – promising they are doing all they can to...

We've Got Your Boy is a new investigative podcast series on school exclusions, child imprisonment, and the roots of serious youth violence. Starting here, on the outskirts of Bristol, Vinney Green secure children's home. The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales – it’s one of the lowest in the world. It’s before a child has even left primary school. But the pipeline to prison can sta...

We've Got Your Boy is a new investigative podcast series on school exclusions, child imprisonment, and the roots of serious youth violence – starting here, on the outskirts of Bristol, Vinney Green secure children's home. Episode 1: ‘Hurt People Hurt People drops on 20 November. ------ Cable members get early access. Not a member yet? Join us and be amongst the first to hear it: https://thebristol...