Youth crime: did things only get better?

Essential update on law and order for UK issues students

Controlling crime can be identified as being at the core of New Labour, and Blair’s apparent obsessions with law and order predate his accession to the Labour leadership in 1994. It was when he was shadow Home Secretary in 1993 that the now famous Blair soundbite “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” hit the media headlines.

But a new study released today by criminologists at King’s College calls into question the effectiveness of a key plank of New Labour’s approach, its drive to cut youth offending.

According to the BBC website:

‘A decade-long government drive to cut youth offending has had “no measurable impact”.

At the heart of the ambitious reforms was the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and associated local Youth Offending Teams which began working in 2000.

But in a review of the £650m system, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King’s College said the government’s claims of success had been over-stated.

The report said youth offending had barely changed - but more children had been criminalised or imprisoned.

There had been some success in accelerating the time from arrest to sentencing, but the new bodies had “struggled” to tackle underlying, complex social problems in the lives of young offenders.

Nearly all the targets relating to youth education, training, employment, drug abuse, mental health and accommodation had been missed, concluded the authors.

Enver Solomon, co-author of the CCJS report, said the findings suggested the multi-agency youth offending teams were not necessarily working.

“The government’s record on youth crime and tackling the multiple needs of children caught up in the youth justice system is less impressive than many would have expected,” he said.’

You can find a pdf file of the CCJS report here