andrewducker | (no subject)

The Guardian has a reprint of a press release to do with children and crime. Backs up some of what I was saying recently and calls for changes in the way that crime is approached.

Five children's charities, including the Children's Society, together with the crime reduction charity Nacro have launched a project called Shape to reshape the public debate about young offenders. In particular, we want to encourage alternatives to custody.

Out intention is not to be soft on crime. But a rational debate about young offenders must take account of the hard reality of children and young people's lives.

Children and young people are increasingly victims of crime yet as a society we focus on the small minority who are perpetrators. The fear of youth crime has never been greater yet only 2 % of young people are cautioned or convicted each year.

The UK has one of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility in Europe. At 10 a child is held to be as accountable in court as an adult. As a result, the number of young people in custody has risen dramatically in the past decade.

About 7,000 under-18s were in custody last year, according to the Home Office. Yet more than 88% of children who receive a custodial sentence re-offend within two years, indicating that locking children up does not work.

The members of Shape believe that children should never be locked up. If it is necessary to detain them, they should always be in small units close to their homes, where they can maintain links with their families.

However, we welcome initiatives by the youth justice board, which advises the government on tackling young offending, to provide community-based alternatives to custody.

But we need to go beyond that and question whether the criminal justice system is the best way of handling children and young people who are deeply troubled, at risk of abuse and neglect, and living in poverty.