Police targets conflict with work of youth offending teams

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Targets for police and youth offending teams (YOTs) are in conflict with each other and create "perverse incentives" for dealing with youth crime, according to a government report looking at the work of the Home Office.

The report highlighted how YOTs struggle to hit targets to reduce the number of first-time young offenders because police are incentivised to increase prosecutions. The review, the latest from the government's Lifting the Burdens Taskforce, said the situation "had the potential to seriously disadvantage the young people concerned, potentially with adverse effects throughout their adult life".

Changes have taken place to reduce first-time prosecutions of young people who commit minor offences because the police's statutory performance indicators now have a greater emphasis on serious crime. However, instead of reducing the conflict, the report warned that police could be tempted to "up tariff", by taking offenders into a more serious crime bracket to meet their new target. The report said the situation should be regularly reviewed by a "representative and transparent" body.