Crime Reduction Strategy
Government Strategy: Dealing with young offenders
To underpin our commitment to reduce the time taken to deal with young offenders, statutory time limits are being tested in the Narey pilot sites. These do not replace the challenging targets for all agencies to progress youth cases speedily through the courts. They do, however, present a maximum during which the cases are to be completed.
New punishments and interventions
4. Last year’s Crime and Disorder Act included new powers to enable early, targeted intervention to deal with anti-social behaviour and divert young people from crime, and also new powers for the police and the courts to intervene when young people do offend. Many of these measures are currently being piloted ahead of national implementation next year. They include the final warning scheme, which replaces repeat cautioning of young offenders; a reparation order, which makes young offenders face up to their crimes and the consequences of their actions; an action plan order, a short intensive programme of community-based intervention combining punishment, rehabilitation and reparation; and a parenting order, to help and support parents to control the behaviour of their children; and detention and training orders, which allow the court to make an order specifying that an offender should undergo a period of detention and training followed by a period of supervision. Electronic tagging of 12-16 year-olds has also been trialled in Priority Policing Areas and proved to be a success. In spring 2002 tagging of juveniles was made available across England & Wales.
Youth Justice Board
5. If work with young offenders is to be delivered effectively and consistently at the local level, through Youth Offending Teams, there needs to be effective oversight at national level of the operation of the teams and of the youth justice system as a whole. The Crime and Disorder Act established the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales to provide a clearer national framework for local action to tackle youth offending. The aim of the Board is to monitor the operation of the youth justice system and the provision of youth justice services, to advise the Secretary of State on the setting of national standards, and to identify, promote and make grants for the development of good practice both in the operation of the youth justice system and the prevention of youth offending.
Youth Offending Teams
6. Work with young offenders needs to address all aspects of their offending behaviour, including relevant family, education and health problems. By April 2000 all areas of England and Wales will have in place a multi-agency Youth Offending Team bringing together all the agencies with a contribution to make, including police and probation officers, social workers and education and health staff. The teams will deliver community-based intervention programmes to make young offenders face up to their crimes and change their attitudes and behaviour.
7. The Crown Prosecution Service is putting youth justice at the forefront of local Criminal Justice System partnerships and local initiatives by creating youth specialists to work closely with the police to improve ways of identifying Persistent Young Offenders, and also with the courts to expedite proceedings and avoid unnecessary adjournment.
Youth Court System
8. The reform process continues with changes to the youth court system, to encourage an approach focused on changing offending behaviour. These include arrangements in the 1999 Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act for young offenders appearing in court for the first time who plead guilty and who do not require a custodial sentence, to be referred to a young offender panel drawn from the local community, and facilitated by the Youth Offending Team. The panel will look at the causes of the offending and draw up a contract with the young offender and their parents to tackle these causes. The panel arrangements will be piloted next year.
Improved regimes for under 18s
9. Where custodial sentences are necessary for young offenders, our focus is on reducing re-offending on release through a new approach to custody and care of under 18 year old boys. This forms a key component of our youth justice reforms. The Comprehensive Spending Review provided £51 million for setting up a new under 18 estate and implementing a new regime which addresses offending behaviour through a series of accredited offending behaviour programmes, improved educational and work skills and promoting law abiding behaviour.
Early intervention : Supporting young children and families through Surestart
10. We know a good deal about the risk factors, such as poor housing, poor parenting, association with delinquent peers, which can result in criminal behaviour. Although we cannot predict accurately which individual will become an offender, we know that children exposed to multiple risks are disproportionately likely to end up as serious or persistent offenders. Two years ago, the Home Office undertook a review of evidence on what is effective in reducing re-offending. It showed that a wide range of initiatives which target children, their families, their schools and their friends can prevent criminality or reduce risk factors, and that early interventions to target not only the children at risk but also their parents and their schools are most beneficial. The High/Scope Perry Pre-School Programme in the United States targeted both children and their parents. A total of 58 children from low income families received a two year high quality pre-school education programme in the early 1960s, whilst their mothers received home visits. The subsequent fortunes of the children were contrasted with a matched control group and revealed that those who attended the programme performed better in school and adult education, were more likely to graduate and get employment and were about half as likely to be pregnant during their teens. Arrest rates were 40% lower for the experimental group and a cost benefit analysis based on these figures indicated a return of $7 for every $1 invested.
11. The results of this and other studies have encouraged us to develop our own early intervention – the Surestart programme, a cross-departmental strategy targeted at children under 4 and their families. The Government has set aside £540million to support Sure Start projects. The aim of Sure Start is to work with parents and children to promote the physical, intellectual and social development of pre-school children - particularly those who are disadvantaged - to ensure they are ready to thrive when they get to school. The evaluation of the programme will assess how these children progress later on in childhood and into their teenage years by tracking contact with the criminal justice system, drug related crime, levels of economic activity and teenage smoking and pregnancy.
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The Government's Crime Reduction Strategy, Contents
Last update: Thursday, September 28, 2006