In late 2024, Police Scotland established the Youth Engagement team to create new ways of listening to children and young people, to ensure their experiences shape policing responses to the issues that affect them most.
Our first step was simple: ask children and young people what matters to them. We started with two broad questions:
- What’s important to you in your community?
- What are some things that are tough for children and young people today?
From both questions we heard consistent themes. Children and young people often spoke about a general lack of things to do for people their age and sometimes feeling unsafe in their local areas. They also told us that their worries were intensified by social media, with exposure to violent content online being a common part of their daily lives and having a direct impact on how likely they felt they were to be a victim of violence.
As similar conversations continued to emerge, it became clear that we needed to explore more deeply why children and young people felt this way.
We know that Scotland is a much safer place than it was 20 years ago. Overall rates of violence are lower and there has been a 67% reduction in homicide levels between 2004/05 and 2024/25 – the lowest levels of homicide in Scotland since the 1970s. However, for many of those we spoke to, this didn’t reflect their lived reality within their communities.
To explore what was driving these feelings, we partnered with the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU) to launch a national engagement project: ‘The Way We See It: What Young People Think About Violence’.
The project began with three aims:
- To understand what violence means to children and young people, and how it affects their lives
- To build greater awareness of the drivers that contribute to a minority of children and young people’s involvement in violence
- To support children and young people to co-design solutions that reduce violence and make communities feel safer
Since June 2025, the project team have travelled from Inverness to Dumfries, listening to the views of more than 600 children and young people. Behind every conversation was a different story, but together they painted a powerful picture of how violence is understood, experienced and felt by children and young people across Scotland.
Too often, children and young people are solely viewed as the problem in relation to violence. This project has heard that they want to, and deserve to be, part of the solution.
What we have learned so far: Interim report findings
The Way We See It has worked with schools, youth groups and care settings to hear experiences and views on violence from a wide range of children and young people – including those who have been victims, perpetrators, or witnesses, and those who have never directly encountered it.
What does violence mean to children and young people?
Children and young people have shared informative, nuanced and sometimes surprising insights about what violence means to them. We often tend to shy away from conversations about harm with children and young people in the vein of protecting them. However, what we have learned through this project is that children and young people are worryingly becoming more aware of violence from a younger age, and by not talking to them openly and honestly about its consequences and impacts, it compounds violence, making it seem a normalised part of their lives.
What drives involvement in violence?
Across the country, we heard a consistent narrative that exposure to violence was becoming more common – mostly through viewing videos of fighting and extreme forms of violence, seeing media reports of serious violence in communities, and receiving abusive or threatening messages from both peers and strangers. Children and young people shared that this exposure increases their sense of fear which, in turn, decreases their sense of safety – sometimes influencing their perceived need to carry weapons.
Children and young people have also pointed to peer pressure as a motivating factor behind involvement in violence. We heard honest reflections that the influence of their peers, especially on social media, often fuels a pressure to “act up” for an audience. They also shared that feeling a pressure to “fit in” could influence someone to become join a ‘Young Team’ or gang, with some seeing these groups as a way to provide a sense of belonging that some children and young people feel is missing from elsewhere in their community.
What are children and young people’s solutions to violence?
Our interim findings emphasise the importance of ensuring that children and young people can co-design solutions to the issues affecting them.
They have told us they want greater access to trusted adults to keep them safe and help them feel supported:
“Someone to keep you on a good path.” (S3, North Lanarkshire)
They emphasised the importance of education at an earlier age on the realities of violence to support the next generation to understand the impact violence could have on their future:
“To be educated on the impacts of violence before it happens” (S2, West Lothian)
We also heard that children and young people feel their access to safe spaces, including free recreational activities, is increasingly under threat. They see investment in these spaces as essential to prevent violence:
“More activities for young people… they’re doing bad things because they’re bored” (S3, West Lothian).
The Way We See It has centred on engaging with and listening to children and young people, aiming to shape policy both within policing and across Scotland more broadly.
Over the course of this project, one thing has been clear: children and young people are not just affected by violence – they are vital to preventing it.
By creating meaningful spaces for them to be heard and access the support they need to navigate a complex world, we can ensure our collective approach to violence prevention is shaped not just for children and young people, but with them.
What does this mean for policy and decision makers?
Children and young people’s experiences offer valuable insight which is pivotal to help inform policy, practice and decision-making to reduce violence.
Their views reinforce the need for sustained investment in the spaces, places and relationships that help children and young people feel safe, connected and supported – including youth work and mentoring. They also highlighted the importance of expanding education around the realities and consequences of violence and helping children and young people build the confidence and skills to respond safely to conflict and harm.
Children and young people described growing concerns about their exposure to violence online. This underlines the need for a stronger approach to digital safeguarding, with public bodies, third sector organisations and social media platforms all having a role to play. Alongside improving the visibility of trusted sources of support on the platforms children and young people use – such as TikTok and Snapchat – greater attention should be given to how algorithms amplify violent content, strengthening mechanisms for reporting harmful material and reducing repeated exposure to distressing content.
Another important area of learning was the impact that reporting of violent incidents can have on children and young people’s feelings of safety. They described how repeated coverage of serious incidents of violence – particularly through online news articles and social media posts from media organisations – increased their levels of fear about becoming a victim of violence. Therefore, heightening the perception among some that carrying a weapon could make them feel safer. While reporting has an important role in keeping the public informed, media organisations should also consider how repeated or sensationalised coverage may unintentionally increase fear among younger audiences. More balanced and contextual reporting, particularly following incidents involving those under the age of 18, alongside clear information about available support, could help reduce unnecessary fear while ensuring communities remain informed. Achieving this will require closer collaboration between public bodies and media organisations.
Above all, The Way We See It demonstrates that children and young people should be recognised for the vital role they can play in shaping responses to violence. Removing barriers to participation – especially for those experiencing vulnerabilities and at greater risk of becoming involved in violence – to create genuine opportunities for children and young people to influence the decisions that affect them can strengthen violence prevention strategies by ensuring they remain relevant, responsive and grounded in lived experiences.
By Denisha Killoh, Senior Youth Engagement Officer and Caitlin Donoghue, Analyst Researcher