Children in care proceedings 'three times more likely to have offended'

Research by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) found that young people between the ages of 10 and 17 in contact with the public law system, were 2.9 times more likely to have offended than the general population.

The MoJ's research report says the findings highlight the importance of early preventive work, adding that four out of every 10 (39 per cent) children going through the public law system had committed one or more proven offences by the age of 17.

Researchers also found that the same cohort committed more offences on average than the general population - 2.5 proven offences, compared with 0.3 offences for the general population.

"The association between public law and offending may be explained to a large extent by shared risk factors," the report states.

"Young people going through public law cases are likely to come from high-risk family backgrounds affected by poverty, abuse and deprivation.

"Research by MoJ, for example, showed that the most common reasons for care or emergency protection orders in England and Wales were neglect (53 per cent) and physical abuse (33 per cent).

"In addition, emotional abuse was a reason in just over a fifth (22 per cent) of cases and child sexual abuse was cited in nine per cent of cases."

Children in contact with the public law system were also found to be 4.6 times more likely to commit a violent crime between the ages of 10 and 17 than the general population.

They are also offending at an earlier age, with the most common age of a first offence being 13, compared with 15 for the general population.

The report calls for family and youth justice organisations to work together to offer targeted support to prevent offending among those in their early teenage years, and girls in particular.

"The analysis points to the importance of early years preventative approaches," the report states.

"Consideration could also be given to more joint working between the family and youth justice systems.

"Also, given the suggested importance of gender and age when in contact with the public law system, it is likely that those in contact with the public law system in their early teenage years may benefit from targeted support and intervention around their offending, particularly females."

A separate MoJ-commissioned report published this month credited the role of children's centres and other early help programmes in a large drop in the number of children involved in the justice system over the past 10 years.