Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Crime Reduction Programme

Youth Inclusion Programme

Reducing Youth Crime

Reducing youth crime and reforming the youth justice system are a major part of the Government's effort to build safer communities and tackle social exclusion.

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 establishes preventing offending as the principal aim of the youth justice system and places a statutory duty on all those working in the youth justice system to have regard to that aim. What this means in practice for different agencies, professions and individuals is set out in the framework document ‘Youth Justice - the statutory principal aim of preventing offending by children and young people’, published in September 1998.

A Youth Crime Prevention Strategy - Consultation

The YJB has released a draft copy of its youth crime prevention strategy. Towards A Youth Crime Prevention Strategy contains a series of actions that the YJB will take to achieve its delivery. These will feed into our corporate and business planning process, resulting in co-ordinated activity with agreed timescales.

Getting a copy

Towards A Youth Crime Prevention Strategy   PDF 256Kb

Youth Inclusion Programme (YIP)

Youth Inclusion Programmes (YIPs), established in 2000, are tailor-made programmes for 8 to 17-year-olds who are at high risk of involvement in crime or anti-social behaviour. YIPs generally work with either the 8-12 age range (Junior YIPs) or the 13-17 (Senior YIPs).

YIPs target young people in a neighbourhood who are considered to be most at risk of offending, but are also open to other young people in the local area. The programme operates in 114 of the most deprived/high crime neighbourhoods in England and Wales.

YIPs aim to reduce youth crime and anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhoods in which they work. Young people on the YIP are identified through a number of different agencies, including the YOT, police, children and family services, local education authorities or schools, neighbourhood wardens and anti-social behaviour teams.

The programme gives young people somewhere safe to go where they can learn new skills, take part in activities with others and get support with their education and careers guidance. Positive role models – the workers and volunteer mentors – help to change young people's attitudes to crime and anti-social behaviour, and address those factors that put young people at risk of involvement in offending or anti-social behaviour.

Each project contributes to its YOT’s target to reduce the number of first time entrants into the criminal justice system in the YOT area. To do so, YIPs have the following aims:

  • to engage with a high proportion of the core group, especially those members deemed most at risk within the group
  • to address the risk factors and enhance the protective factors, as identified by ONSET assessments, for the young people with whom it is working
  • to increase access for engaged young people to mainstream and specialist services, especially in relation to education, training and employment
  • to prevent engaged young people from entering the Criminal Justice System, and to reduce offending of young people already in the system
  • to intervene, not just on an individual level, but with communities and families (especially the parents of the core group).

Funding

Each YIP is funded annually by the YJB through YOT prevention grants, and this funding is suplemented by sharing resources with other local agencies. In many areas, programmes also obtain resources from other funding streams (such as Neighbourhood Renewal) which share our aim of reducing crime and supporting communities.

Evaluation

An independent national evaluation of the first three years of the programme found that:

  • arrest rates for the 50 young people considered to be most at risk of crime in each YIP went down by 65%
  • of those who had offended before joining the programme, 73% were arrested for fewer offences after engaging with a YIP
  • of those who had not offended previously but who were at risk, 74% did not go on to be arrested after engaging with a YIP.

Getting a copy
Download Evaluation of Youth Inclusion Programme  PDF 589Kb

YIP Management Guidance

YIP Management Guidance was published in 2006 and sent to all YOTs and YIPs. You can order a copy of the guidance from the Youth Justice Board website.

Quality standards

The eight Quality Standards allow YIPs and Junior YIPs to assess their practices and procedures against clearly defined criteria. The YJB encourages programmes to complete and review this self-assessment process on a regular basis.

The YIP Quality Standards are vaild for both England and Wales; there are separate English and Welsh version for Junior YIPs.

Getting a copy

Last update: Tuesday, September 09, 2008

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