Justice reforms have failed to cut youth offending, says study

The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies examined the reforms Labour had made to the system since the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, which led to the creation of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and youth offending teams (YOTs).

Ten Years of Labour's Youth Justice Reforms: An Independent Audit found that, despite record levels of spending on youth justice, no significant reduction in crime has been made.

"A decade on from the creation of the YJB and YOTs, and at a time of rising concerns about youth gangs and violence, the time has come to reappraise the role and purpose of the youth justice system and consider what it can realistically achieve in addressing youth offending," the report said. It argued that youth justice agencies can only regulate youth crime and have minimal direct impact on reducing it. "Important questions therefore need to be raised about the role and expectations that should be made of the youth justice system," it said.

The report claimed that one in four young people admits to having committed a crime - a figure which has not changed in the past 10 years. It said it was "striking" to note that there is no indication the creation of the YJB and YOTs had any impact on reducing the level of crime young people themselves admit to committing.

Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and co-author of the report, said the youth justice system needed to focus more on the reasons why young people offend than on punishing them.

"One criticism of Labour is they spoke about being tough on crime and the causes of crime but they've been tougher on crime than on the causes," he said. "If they had set up a youth inclusion board instead of the Youth Justice Board, they may have ended up tougher on the causes."

The YJB was unable to comment on the study as CYP Now went to press.

- www.cypnow.co.uk/doc

- See News insight, p4; Editorial, p17.