Heartbeat: Breaking the cycle – the impact of communication difficulties on crime

August 18, 2021

It’s no secret that violence and crime in the West Midlands has steadily increased in the last few years, from the aggression and attacks in the community to the victims and injuries we see in our wards. However, the hard work of a determined speech and language therapist is breaking the cycle of youth crime by highlighting one consistent issue – communication needs.

According to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (2008), around 60 per cent of young offenders have some form of speech, language and communication need sufficient enough to affect them on a day-to-day basis. This can include listening and understanding what is said, remembering and recalling information, managing social situations and expressing emotions.

Whilst these difficulties are not just confined to young offenders, 7 per cent of children in the general population also have difficulties in these areas, the longer they go unsupported, the higher the negative repercussions. If left untreated, 33 per cent of these children are likely to develop mental illness and over 50 per cent may become involved in criminal activity.

Leading the charge in tackling this challenge is Advanced Speech and Language Therapist, Claire Westwood who alongside her clinical role within our Trust takes on additional duties within Sandwell Youth Offending Team and West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit. Sharing her thoughts she said: “The difficulties we’ve outlined are often mislabelled as purely ‘behavioural’ issues. The impact can be difficulty accessing education, higher risk of school exclusion, struggling to access services offered by mental health services and ultimately gaining employment.

“The West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit commissioned speech and language therapy input from Sandwell Children’s Therapies to investigate how services are working on this issue and to scope out the potential for progress. The aim of the project will be to highlight speech, language and communication need as being a core issue for those at risk of or already involved in youth violence and put blockers in place on that school-to-prison pipeline that means that young people’s needs are recognised and supported at the earliest stage possible to support diversion from negative life consequences.”