Chris Stanley, head of youth crime at crime-reduction charity Nacro, said figures showing that almost a quarter of 14- to 17-year-old males were serious or prolific offenders highlighted that young people needed better support.
"Young people have always offended," he said. "They've done it for centuries. It's wrong but it's not such an alarming figure."
The Home Office figures were based on self-reporting by people aged 10 to 65.
Serious offences were defined as theft of a vehicle, burglary, robbery, theft from the person, assault resulting in injury, and selling Class A drugs. Prolific offending was classed as committing six or more offences in a year.
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