CYP Now - NCB Now: Comment - Youth Crime Action Plan should listen to public

Alarmist - and often inaccurate - media reporting has created a disproportionate fear of teenage crime. In this frenzied climate, one would expect the public to be crying out for harsher sentencing and increased imprisonment, but the reverse is true.

As Louise Casey reported in Engaging Communities in Fighting Crime, the public see placing more offenders in prison as the least effective action to reduce crime. When asked about sentencing for young offenders, they recommend less severe sentences than the courts actually impose. And, while they may want violent young offenders put into custody, they also want them to be properly rehabilitated.

The Youth Crime Action Plan needs to address these issues. The number of under-18s in custody has more than doubled since 1989. According to the Youth Justice Board, 3,200 UK children are "inside" at any one time - the highest rate in Europe. It costs up to £150,000 per year for each teenager to be placed in a secure setting, which comes from the public purse. And more than 80 per cent of teenage boys are re-convicted within two years of release. It's increasingly obvious that imprisoning children for committing a low-level crime or breaching an antisocial behaviour order is ineffective.

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