Witness Confident News

Welcome to Witness Confident News. Here we set out briefly in a newsletter format what we have been doing, with links to fuller stories and background information.

Street violence 2011 - the full picture

25 October 2011 |

Drawing on the latest British Crime Survey, this paper shows that last year there were 1,206,000 incidents of street violence in England and Wales. With a clear up rate of 9%, the offenders were not brought to justice in a million of these crimes. With the public's fear of being mugged or attacked by a stranger running at seven times the actual risk, this is a problem that Britain cannot afford to overlook any longer.

Young children left to deal with street violence on their own

24 October 2011

Children as young as 10 witness serious violence on the streets but few raise the experience with their teachers as they don’t believe schools are ready or able to help. These findings come from a ground-breaking study of primary school children in Hackney and Islington conducted by Witness Confident. The charity welcomes the finding that these young children are predisposed to do the right thing. Almost all the 10 and 11 year old children interviewed say if they see a child being mugged they will help the victim, call the police or chase the villain. The report was covered by the Evening Standard.

Would you walk-on-by?

15 August 2011

BBC 1's Sunday Morning Live discusses how the Criminal Justice System can act to deter people from being good citizens when they witness street violence. See the show here - Part 1 and Part 2, where Shonali Routray, our deputy chair, explains how we are working to improve things.

Politicians pledge to SPARKLE

30 March 2011

The SPARKLE campaign to cut street violence in Hackney and Islington has got off to a bright start as politicians from across the political spectrum have pledhttp://witnessconfident.org/images/PDFs/ged to lead by example and reject the walk-on-by culture. Local MPs Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn have been joined by London Mayor Boris Johnson, Hackney Mayor Jules Pipe and Islington leader Catherine West as early signatories.

SPARKLE campaign set fair

27 January 2011

Our grass roots campaign launches to reduce the level of street violence in Hackney and Islington by 20% over the next four years. The campaign is built on getting more people to engage as confident witnesses if they see street violence.

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Sentencing for Assault

05 January 2011

In our response and addendum to the public consultation on sentencing for assault, we recommend that sentencing policy should recognise that street violence is a major issue and that the new Guideline should (a) refer explicitly to the greater harm caused by stranger attacks, (b) make clear that unprovoked attacks trigger a higher culpability, and (c) take account of the seriousness of attacks (i) that take place in the presence of the public, (ii) where the victim is using (and not just providing) a public service, (iii) that leave the victim fearful of leaving their home, and (iv) where steps are taken to prevent witnesses from engaging with the criminal justice system.

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Taking the stand for the eye-witness