A distrust of the police, curiosity, and the “thrill of the moment” were some of the reasons behind young people joining in last summer’s riots, research has suggested.
The involvement of some children was “spontaneous and unconsidered” and had less to do with online misinformation, the Children’s Commissioner said in a new report.
Dame Rachel de Souza’s office spoke to around a fifth of the children charged over the trouble which broke out in the aftermath of the murders of three young girls in Southport.
Axel Rudakubana was handed a 52-year sentence last week for the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, as well as the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults, at a dance class last July.
In the days following the stabbings, a number of false claims circulated on social media about the attack – including a false name and incorrect claims that the attacker was a recently arrived asylum seeker – with some of that misinformation believed to have fuelled rioting in various parts of England.
Regarding the actions of children, Dame Rachel said her office’s interviews with 14 of the under-18s charged in relation to the disorder found a number of issues.
In the report, she said: “What emerged from the conversations I had with the young people themselves was striking, and often unsettling.
“Many children described making a split-second decision, their involvement being largely spontaneous and unconsidered, driven by curiosity or the thrill of the moment to see what was going on in their community.
“Others described a deep distrust of the police and the opportunity to retaliate against a previous interaction.
“What these conversations do not support is the prevailing narrative that emerged from the riots which was subsequently accepted: that online misinformation, racism or other right-wing influences were to blame for why young people were enticed to join in the aggression.
“While there is no doubt these issues all played a role, they did not drive the children’s actions – they did not come up as the only significant factors in any of the conversations with the children who were charged.”
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Of the 14 children spoken to towards the end of last year by the commissioner’s office, many had no previous experience with the criminal justice system.
All “made it clear that they did not get involved due to far-right, anti-immigration or racist views”, the report said.