The Bristol knife crime has been described as a scourge.

In 2023, there was an average of one incident per week involving knives and stabbings. On Friday, two teenagers were jailed for the murder of 16-year-old Darrian Williams.

Some of those who were involved in the postcode-led “gangs” behind the violence now say they are looking for a way out.

“I feel like I’m not going to achieve what I want because you can’t leave that life. There are people who might want to target me,” said an anonymous who was on the edge of a gang a few years ago.

“Now I’m working and living away, I want to move out of Bristol it’s so bad.”

The person I spoke to said she was too scared to be named or pictured for fear of punishment.

A few years ago they were involved with other young people who are often labeled as a ‘gang’ – where exploitation and serious violence are common.

There have been several high-profile youth murder trials in Bristol where rivalries between different postcodes of the city have been referenced.

The most recent was the killing of 16-year-old Darrian Williams, described as a “happy go lucky” teenager.

Two boys, both 16 years old, were found guilty of his murder on Friday.

While the court heard no evidence to suggest Darrian was in a gang, witnesses heard the teenage defendants ask Darrian if he was “1-6” before stabbing him in the back.

Band ‘1-6’ is associated with the Bristol BS postcode areas of Fishponds, Hillfields and Oldbury Court. The court heard how they were in conflict with another gang, the “2-4” or “2”, which is associated with St Pauls and St Judes.

There have been other serious cases of fatal youth violence in Bristol, such as 18-year-old Dontae Davis, who was stabbed and killed by a rival gang member in 2021.

His family said he was “strong, loving, caring, charming” and a “thoughtful son”.

Kairon Sawyers, 19, denied murder, claiming he acted in self-defence, but was sentenced to nine years in a young offenders’ institution after being found guilty of manslaughter.

The trial heard a rise in gang tensions East Bristol were to blame.

But amid the violence, there are some in the city who are looking for solutions.

Desmond Brown, founder of Growing Futures – an organization which engages with young people involved in serious youth violence – said he had heard of young boys looking for unusual ways out of Bristol.

“We’ve had young people actually sign up to be trafficked so they can get out of Bristol because of the fear of being stabbed here,” he said.

“The borders (in the city) that we cross every day to go about our daily business that they feel they can’t.

“Traveling on a bus is a scary proposition,” he added.

• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, you can visit BBC Action Line.

Mr Brown said the word “gang” was too strong a term for what was happening in the city and had unfair racial connotations when those involved were often vulnerable boys and girls who were being exploited.

“We’re not talking about organized criminals, we’re talking about young people who are being led astray, not in school, who are involved in serious youth violence, which is really inexplicable,” he said.

Mr Brown said many young people turned to crime for basics such as money for food.

He also said that young people do not feel protected by anyone, including the police, and feel forced to create their own environments where they do.

“It’s about losing hope and losing an opportunity. They come together to protect each other,” he said.

“They’re trying to find opportunities with each other in a world that hasn’t given them that. These are the cracks our young people fall through.

“It’s become a death cult where young people have to be seen to be involved and to protect an area they don’t own.”

Mr Brown said a big part of the problem is that the city has lost spaces for young people to have positive activities and experiences.

“What has changed is that across all ethnicities we are seeing an increase in this behavior and serious violence among young people,” he added.

Mr Brown said social media was “fueling” tensions between groups as teenagers see rap videos that include violent language that calls out other areas.

Courtney Young, community outreach manager at Empire Fighting Chance, a gym that works with underprivileged youth that Darrian attended, agrees.

He said problems often start online with music videos that then spill out onto the streets.

“We have younger and younger people being killed on our streets,” he said.

Mr Young said he had heard stories of young people not involved in any crime being threatened by groups because they know someone who identifies as a 1-6 or 2-4.

He said many youths said there were barriers to travel to and from different areas because of the fear of being caught.

“It’s a great city and we should be able to move freely in it,” he added.

Describing Darrian, who first joined the gym in 2020, as “big and engaging”, Mr Young said the 16-year-old’s death was “heartbreaking”.

“It was a great fit. It had such a ripple effect, not just on us, but on the whole community.

“We need to come together as a city, organizations like ours and others need to work together,” he said.

Dr Craig Johnston, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, said there needed to be safe spaces where adults could form genuine relationships with young people at risk.

He said the formation of groups in certain postcodes was directly related to how disadvantaged the area was.

“There’s a link between that level of poverty, disadvantage and the groups that come up and the links and being together,” he said.

“Postcodes have a sense of loyalty, a sense of looking after your community, belonging to that community is quite strong.”

Dr. Johnston said he thought “gangs” would be too strong a term to use for 1-6 and 2-4 because they are “less organized” than what we traditionally see as gangs.

Mr Brown said police were trying to understand what was going on, but arresting young people was not the answer.

“We’re at an impasse, we can’t force ourselves out of it,” he said.

Mr Brown said that while multi-agency collaboration was the right approach, it was currently not working because of “massive gaps”.

“It can’t just be the police, it’s got to be the council, it’s got to be youth services taking these young people on,” he said.

Like Dr Johnston, Mr Brown agrees that building safe spaces for young people could be the answer.

“We’re losing spaces where we can have young people at those peak times and hot spots — where they can talk to a trusted adult who can guide them to the opportunity they really want,” he said.

“None of them want to be involved in this, they feel like they’re being left out to dry.”