Safer Together Through Sport – Creating Partnerships for Positive Change

Since 2015, StreetGames has been working to strengthen the links and relationships between the Criminal Justice and Community Sport sectors, to build evidence and understanding of how sport can play a more effective role in tackling youth crime and anti-social behaviour. Loughborough University has produced two literature reviews to support this work.

The first literature review summary was published in 2019 and looked at why young people offend, the role of sport in promoting desistance and early interventions for young people at risk of offending. It was developed in order to facilitate shared understanding between partners who are working together to develop creative ways to harness the power of sport to bring about positive change in the lives of young people who may be at risk of offending or who have already begun to offend.

The second literature review summary was published in January 2020. It sits within the context of HM Government’s Serious Violence Strategy (2018), and focuses on early intervention and prevention — one of the four key themes within the Serious Violence Strategy — and summarises current evidence around the most appropriate and effective ways of utilising sport in this context.