More activities would prevent crime, say young prisoners

Roger Morgan’s report was based on information from 187 children, including 94 in secure training centres (STCs), and asked them what could be done to prevent young people committing crime.

Forty-six of the children in the STCs said more activities and places to go, with one saying it would “stop them getting bored and hanging around with the wrong types”.

However the young people noted that the existing activities they wanted to do were too expensive for them.

Thirteen of the STC young people said more jobs would help steer them away from crime but 12 said that there was nothing that could be done to prevent young people committing crime.

The STC inmates identified peer pressure and gangs as the leading reason why young people commit crime followed by a desire to get money to pay for the gadgets and clothes they wanted but could not afford.

One said: “If you don’t have money you go to a shop and rob it to get what you want.”

A third of those in STCs said there is no type of crime that does not matter, but at least one in 10 listed theft, shoplifting and criminal damage as crimes that do not really matter.

They said these crimes did not matter because they were against property rather than people and would only result in a fine rather than jail.

The vast majority of the children in STCs said that people their age were becoming more likely to commit crime because of a lack of jobs and punishments.