The trial of Venables and his co-defendant Robert Thompson sparked a shift to more punitive measures for young people in both Labour and Conservative crime policy during the 1990s.
Andrew Neilson, assistant director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, is concerned that this latest development could spark a similar trend.
He said: "Instead of focusing on cases that are ultimately at the more extreme end of the spectrum, we should be looking at the bigger picture and striving for what makes a safer society, rather than what makes for good headlines.
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