Investment in Violence Prevention Sees Teenage Murders in London Fall to Record Low

Increasing funding for youth work based schemes to support young people at risk of violence has been hailed as a key factor for a steep decline in the number of teenagers murdered in the capital last year.

London mayor Sadiq Khan said the fall reflected investment in violence prevention initiatives. Picture: Mayor of London

Teenage homicides in London fell to their lowest level in almost three decades last year, alongside a historic fall in the capital’s overall murder rate.

Latest figures show that eight teenagers were killed in 2025 – the joint lowest total since records began, matching the previous lowest in 2012. Teenagers accounted for 8.3% of all homicide victims, marking a 73% reduction since 2021.

London also recorded its lowest number of homicide victims aged under 25 this century, according to the data.

The Mayor and the Metropolitan Police said the fall reflected a combination of tougher enforcement and a growing emphasis on early-intervention work with vulnerable children and young people, including the expansion of the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).

Since 2024, City Hall and the Home Office have increased funding for violence prevention programmes aimed at supporting young people at risk of exploitation and serious harm.

In February 2025, the Home Office allocated £9.4 million to London’s Violence Reduction Unit to expand youth-work interventions in police custody suites and hospital emergency departments.

This followed a £6.5mn VRU growth funding package announced in 2024, which included £3mn for detached, street-based youth workers, and £2.4mn to expand the MyEnds community-led violence-prevention programme across high-risk areas of the capital.

Between 2023 and 2025, the VRU also provided uplift funding to every London borough to strengthen local violence reduction activity.

The VRU works with schools to address exclusion and absenteeism, funds after-school activities and places youth workers in police custody suites and A&E departments.

According to City Hall data, 80% of under-18s supported through these programmes did not reoffend within 12 months, while more than three-quarters were assessed as having reduced their risk of harm.

Community-based programmes, including projects such as MyEnds, have become a growing part of London’s response to violence, particularly in areas with high levels of deprivation and exploitation.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the approach was based on the principle that “violence is preventable, but we have to act at an early stage”.

He added that since 2016, City Hall had taken a “public health approach” to violence, combining investment in policing with funding for youth clubs, youth workers and mentoring schemes to reduce young people’s vulnerability to exploitation.

Tunde Osundina, a youth worker with Esports Youth Club, a not-for-profit organisation running free gaming sessions and esports tournaments across south London, said the project offered young people a supportive environment.

“I feel it is a really good experience for young people - it gets them off the streets, into the warm, in front of games, entertainment and food,” he said.

National data shows that black teenage boys remain the group most at risk of being victims of serious violence. 

Junior Smart, founder of St Giles Trust’s SOS+ programme described the pattern as one of inequality rather than race. He said: “This is an inequality problem that shows up along racial lines.

“The same patterns appear wherever you have high deprivation, low trust in institutions and limited opportunity.”

Youth justice and safeguarding professionals said the data underlined the need for prevention work to remain focused on the communities most affected by violence, even as overall crime falls.

Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said building trust with communities most affected by violence was critical to sustaining progress.

He added that Met Police figures showed 74% of Londoners now say they trust the police, while 12% say they do not, adding that confidence among Black Londoners had improved in recent years after a period of strained relations.

Rowley said tactics such as stop and search needed to be carried out lawfully and respectfully if they were to contribute to public confidence, adding that day-to-day neighbourhood policing remained central to tackling serious violence.

Lib Peck, director of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, said the figures showed that prevention work alongside enforcement was helping to reduce serious violence among young people, but warned against complacency.

“There is clearly more to do,” she said.

“We will continue to work in partnership across London to invest in young people and in youth clubs because we’re committed to keeping young people safe and supporting them to thrive.”