Custody use for youth knife crime more than doubles
Joe Lepper
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Young people convicted of a knife crime are twice as likely to receive a custodial sentence than they were seven years ago, latest figures have revealed.
Figures released by the Ministry of Justice for the first three months of 2015 show that 13 per cent of young people convicted of a knife crime received an immediate custodial sentence. During the same period in 2008 the proportion was just six per cent.
The figures also reveal an increasing reluctance to caution young people caught in possession of a knife. In the first three months of 2008, 47 per cent of young people caught with a knife received cautions, but over the same period this year just 28 per cent were cautioned.
However, a community sentence, such as a youth rehabilitation order, is still the most commonly used sanction by the courts for young people aged 17 and under convicted of a knife offence. These were used in 52 per cent of cases in January to March this year.
The latest figures cover the period prior to the introduction of tough new sentencing guidelines for those convicted of knife crimes, a move criticised by prison reform campaigners.
Under the Criminal Courts and Justice Act 2015, a minimum four-month detention and training order on 16- and 17-year-olds receiving a second conviction for knife possession will be imposed. Under the same act adults caught in possession of a knife for a second time face a minimum six-month jail term.
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said she is particularly concerned that custody is not the most appropriate environment for young people convicted of such offences.
She said: “At a time when prisons holding children are known to be unsafe, detaining boys alone in cells for 17 hours a day and with high levels of bullying and violence, it seems counter-productive to keep using them for boys who are challenging in their behaviour.
“We know these places fuel violence so it is time we found better ways of responding to boys who carry knives and are putting themselves and others at risk.”
Latest figures show that the number of knife crime offences committed by young people rose marginally between 2014 to 2015, bucking a trend of falls over the last seven years.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The expansion of community sentences along with knife prevention programmes and interventions has played a major contribution in reducing knife crime.
"New laws which will impose a mandatory jail sentence of at least four months for a second offence of knife possession risk undermining this good work, dragging more children into the justice system after many years of hard work to drive down numbers and keep children out of trouble.”
From April 2014 to March 2015, there were 2,920 recorded knife offences carried out by a 10 to 17 year-olds. This is up on the same period over 2013/14 when 2,598 offences in this age group were recorded but still down on 2009/10’s figure of 6,439.
Justice minister Andrew Selous said: "Knife crime causes misery to victims and can destroy lives and communities. We are making sure knife offenders are properly punished - more are being sent to prison and they are spending longer behind bars.”
A start date for the new mandatory sentencing arrangements is currently being considered by ministers.
