Gangs 'safe houses' plan backed

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Ministers are considering providing "safe houses" for black youngsters who want to escape membership of a gang.

Earlier this year, MPs called for a "gang exit strategy" to address a "serious crisis" with too many young black people involved in crime.

In response, the Ministry of Justice and Home Office have said safe houses "may be an appropriate response".

They said a newly formed team looking at gang-related crime would examine how they could work.

In June, the home affairs select committee called for more to be done to combat the influence of gangs in inner cities.

It also blamed social exclusion, absent fathers and real or perceived racial discrimination for the problems.

In its report, the committee said the number of young black men in the criminal justice system was unacceptable - and that there was no evidence young black people committed more crime as a group than others in society.

READ THE REPORT IN FULL <a class="" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/15_06_07_home_affiars.pdf">Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System [1.29MB]</a> Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html">Download the reader here</a>

But they were more involved in certain types of crime, including robbery, drug and gun offences. They were also more likely to be the victims of violent crime.

Black people make up 2.7% of the UK population aged 10 to 17, but represent 8.5% of those in that age group arrested in England and Wales, the report said.

In turn, three in four young black men would soon be on the national DNA database, the committee predicted.

The MPs' wide-ranging report called for more black role models, action on parenting for families with absent fathers. The committee commended innovative inner city mentoring schemes which aim to tackle a culture of underachievement and low horizons among some black boys.

Responding to the report, the Ministry of Justice and Home Office said they agreed that more should be done on gang exit programmes and that they agreed with many of the committee's recommendations.

Ministers said that some other key issues were already being tackled through specific projects, including a focus on gun crime in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.

The government however rejected calls for a rethink of the use of stop and search powers.