Dedicated Young Person Victim Support Service


The young people this new project aims to work with are those who have been the VICTIM OF CRIME OR VICTIMISATION. 
Young people are more likely to be the victims of crime than adults. However they are less likely to report it. This could be for many reasons:

• they may not know how to report it
• they may not trust the Police
• they may accept it as a part of growing up
• they may fear reprisals (Youth Crime Action Plan YCAP/Practice/09)

Many of these victims will suffer loss of self confidence, feel unsafe or angry and struggle to move on with their lives. Many young people associated loosing self confidence and anger with turning to crime themselves by way of dealing with how they felt. In a survey carried out jointly by NACRO and The Howard League for Penal Reform, 55% of young people who admitted to offending behaviour reported being the victim of a crime themselves. By working closely with the Police and Youth offending Teams, we plan to run a Dorset Wide, dedicated young person’s victim support scheme. Using a team of Mentors, we will allocate a worker to a young person as a referral, or self referral is received. The worker will then in the first instance arrange to meet with the young person on a one to one basis. Depending on the type of offence and the individual young person’s need, they may then choose to continue with one to one support or join a small support group, which we will have up and running in their local area. The mentors will enable the young people to explore what has happened to them and possible reasons why, how they feel about this and will support them in rebuilding their sense of worth and confidence to move forward with their lives, no longer a victim.