New from the Home Office, a youth crime action plan.
The Government describes it as a targeted effort to stop those under 18 from committing crimes. It calls for cross-governmental work to:
*get youths off the streets late at night
*provide intensive support for troubled families
*levy tougher, more visible community payback sentences for young people convicted of crime.
However for the Tories the Shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, attacked Labour’s latest plans to tackle knife crime, saying they have not been "thought through at all". He said that the only way to stop knife carrying on the streets was to toughen up the sentencing and prosecuting of people who carry knives.
The Conservative action plan to tackle knife crime, launched by Tory leader David Cameron last week, set out measures including:
– Long-term measures to make families stronger and deal with the causes of crime
– A system of rehabilitating young offenders to stop them committing knife and other crimes in the future
– A reduction of police bureaucracy to get more officers out on the beat
Grieve stressed that "a quick fix solution" was not going to be adequate, and that the UK needs what he termed a "national effort" to combat knife crime.
At the Home Office
Although overall rates of crimes committed by juvenile offenders have held steady, according to the Home Office, each year around 100,000 people between the ages of 10 and 17 enter the criminal justice system for the first time. The new action plan aims to reduce this rate by one-fifth by 2020. It plans to accomplish this through enforcement and prevention measures. It offers support for the most troubled families, as well as an intensive programme for areas with the worst records for youth crime.
Included are:
*better prevention and support for victims
*expansion of family intervention projects
*increasing the number of ASBOs accompanied by parenting orders
*expanding the number of Safer Schools Partnerships
*increasing the number of youth centres and other activities at times when young people are likely to offend, including Friday and Saturday nights
*making permanent exclusion from school an automatic trigger to a comprehensive assessment of a youth’s situation
*expanding family-nurse partnerships
*using innovative methods to support young victims
*improving support for witnesses
The plan also calls for:
* enforcement of legislation to remove at-risk children from the streets late at night
*more work to tackle anti-social behaviour and underage drinking
*new police enforcement tactics to ensure visible patrols during after-school hours
*basing teams of youth workers and ex-gang members on the streets in troubled areas to deal directly with gangs
In addition, the plan calls for more targeted policing, as well as:
*better cooperation between government departments to identify and target prolific offenders
*giving communities the chance to decide what type of reparation work they want young people serving community sentences to do
*requiring young offenders to work out their community sentences on Friday and Saturday nights
And to reduce rates of re-offending, the plan calls for:
*local authorities to fund education for young offenders in custody
*a more comprehensive package of support for young people leaving custody
*access to suitable accommodation and health services for all young offenders leaving custody
What minister says
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that most young people know the difference between right and wrong, and many make a positive contribution to society. However, a minority embark on lives of crime, and they must be dealt with. ‘Youth crime can have a devastating effect on victims and communities, and must be tackled head-on,’ she said. ’Today I want to send the message to perpetrators that their actions are unacceptable.
‘They must understand the consequences of their behaviour – not only on victims and communities, but on their families and their futures.
‘Increasingly we are able to identify these young people early and intervene to address the root causes of their behaviour, including supporting and challenging their parents in meeting their responsibilities. But I want to call on parents to play their part. Tough enforcement is only one part of the solution.
‘The new action we are launching today gives equal weight to the triple-track approach of intensive prevention, tough enforcement and support for parents.’
You can download the Labour plan at:
