Charity Registration No. 221124

1

Approaches to young people and risk Bob
Reitemeier, Chief Executive The Childrens
Society
Charity Registration No. 221124
2
Approaches to young people and risk
Risky behaviour behaviour that has a propensity
for varied but significant consequences for the
individual, of which at least one is considered
bad, harmful or otherwise undesirable
With children, for children, with you
3
Approaches to young people and risk

• Research from The Childrens Society
• ? Still Running I II
• National Survey Findings on Childhood
• Just Justice
• Prostitution Review

With children, for children, with you
4
Approaches to young people and risk

• Risk taking
• Key findings from Still Running II (The
  Childrens Society 2005) 
• 100,000 children under the age of 16 run away
  overnight in the UK each year
• Family relationships are the most important
  factor in children running away
• 26 of young runaways said that they were
  forced to leave home
• Two thirds of children running away overnight
  were not reported missing to the police
• One in 12 are hurt or harmed while away
• One in six runaways had slept rough whilst they
  were away

With children, for children, with you
5
Approaches to young people and risk

• Sexual Exploitation
• Young people describe their entry to prostitution
  through
• Family contacts
• Poverty and a lack of access to material things
• Peer pressure and encouragement from friends
• Young peoples reasons for their involvement
•  A chance to regain a sense of power and control
  over their lives
• Somewhere to stay when they run away
•  A means of coping with problems or surviving
  when away from home

With children, for children, with you
6
Approaches to young people and risk

• Sources of pressure
• Peer Pressure
• Pressure within families
• Pressure related to school
• Pressure within the community
• Pressure from wider society

With children, for children, with you
7
Approaches to young people and risk

• Links between pressure and risk-taking
•  Peer pressure and substance misuse
• Academic pressure and their mental well-being
  with potential consequences for the incidence of
  self-harm and substance misuse
• Family pressures and running away
• Negative stereotyping of young people impacting
  their behaviours
• General societal pressures impacting young
  peoples mental health and well-being

With children, for children, with you
8
Approaches to young people and risk

• Unpicking the discourse on risky behaviour
• Other risk taking behaviours
• Whats the benefit?
• Young peoples perspective
• Compounding/accelerating riskiness

With children, for children, with you
9
Approaches to young people and risk

• Policy and Practice Challenges
• Risk avoidance or harm reduction?
• Conceptualising adolescence
• Transfer of risk
• Safeguarding adolescents
• Policy paradigms
• Learning from other countries

With children, for children, with you
10

Approaches to young people and risk Bob
Reitemeier, Chief Executive The Childrens
Society
Charity Registration No. 221124