Youth Crime

An apparently motiveless spate of teenage violent crime has shocked the nation - So who's to blame?

Youth crime harms communities, creates a culture of fear and damages the lives of some of our most vulnerable young people.
Reducing youth crime and improving the youth justice system is a central part of our effort to build safer communities and to tackle the problem of social exclusion.
What causes youth crime?
These are some of the major risk factors that increase the chances of young people committing crimes:
01. troubled home life
02. poor attainment at school, truancy and school exclusion
03. drug or alcohol misuse and mental illness
04. deprivation such as poor housing or homelessness
05. peer group pressure

Rehabilitation and sentencing
Sentences and interventions designed to prevent offending and reoffending include:

A). Referral Orders – the young person is required to agree a contract of behaviour with their parents/guardians and the victim (where appropriate), to repair the harm caused by the offence and address the causes of the offending behaviour.

B). Action Plan Orders – three-month, intensively supervised community service programmes focusing on education and involving the young person’s parents/guardians

C). Reparation Orders – court orders requiring a young person to repair the harm caused to an individual or the community, for example, through mediation or community service work

D). Parenting Orders – a requirement for parents to attend counselling and guidance sessions where they receive help in dealing with their children

E). Electronic Tagging, as part of an Intensive Supervision & Surveillance Programme (ISSP) – for the most persistent offenders aged 12-16 year olds, on bail or on remand in local authority accommodation


Dedicated Youth Offending Teams

Youth offending teams (YOTs) are an important part of our strategy to deal with youth crime. YOTs include representatives from the police, social services, health, education and housing. Their job is to identify the needs of each young offender and identify the problems that make the young person offend, as well as measuring the risk they pose to others. This enables the YOT to identify suitable programmes to address the needs of the young person, so they can be rehabilitated, through:

01. education, training or employment
02. drug rehabilitation
03. mental health assessment and treatment
04. provision of accommodation