The Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour has conducted a fundamental re-examination of the way that society responds to troublesome behaviour by children and young people.
Its remit has been to identify a consistent set of principles for
* responding fairly, effectively and proportionately to antisocial behaviour and offending by children and young people
* minimising the harm that young people’s antisocial and criminal behaviour causes to themselves and society.
The resulting principles have guided its recommended blueprint for an effective, humane and coherent approach that is based on sound evidence.
Time for a fresh start, the Commission’s report was published on Thursday July 15, bringing forward strategic proposals for sustainable reform of relevant services for children and young people, including the youth justice system.
Anthony Salz, Executive Vice-Chairman of Rothschild and a former leading commercial lawyer who chaired the Commission said: “Continually tinkering with the response to youth crime over a quarter of a century has contributed to its growing incoherence.
“Investment in proven, cost-effective preventive interventions has been too low and children at risk of becoming prolific and serious offenders have missed out on timely help. Worse still, those who do become chronic offenders in their teens are treated in ways that do little to help them return to lead law-abiding adult lives – and may even serve to deepen their offending.”
The Commission’s members include leading figures from policing, the legal system, youth justice, criminology, youth work and local government, as well as business, economics, broadcasting and journalism. Its work was organised by the Police Foundation, an independent charity, and funded by the Nuffield Foundation with a remit to ground its conclusions in sound research evidence.
Guiding principles
The Commission’s blueprint for reform starts with a set of guiding principles that underpin the reforms, making them fully coherent and sustainable. These insist that the public can be better protected by:
•prevention: tackling antisocial behaviour and offending through the needs and underlying circumstances of children and young people’s lives
•restoration: ensuring that young offenders are held to account for the harm caused to victims and the community
•integration: seeking to retain children and young people who offend in mainstream society or reconnect them in ways that enable them to lead law-abiding lives.
Restorative justice
The Commission recommends that restorative youth conferences, modelled on procedures successfully introduced in Northern Ireland seven years ago, should be used with young offenders in all but the most serious cases.
They would be led by a professional coordinator and bring together the young offender, their parents or carers, police and a member of the local Youth Offending Team (YOT). Victims, whenever willing, would take part to make children and young people aware of the damage and distress caused by their crime and help agree how they should make amends.
Restorative plans, lasting up to a year, could include an apology and payment to the victim, unpaid community work, treatment for mental health or drug and alcohol problems, parenting support and a range of sanctions, including YOT supervision and curfews using electronic tagging. Intensive supervision and surveillance would be available for prolific and more serious offenders.
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Youth conferences would be either:
•Discretionary, as an alternative, agreed by the Crown Prosecution Service, to taking the young offender to court. This would depend on the young person admitting the offence and agreeing to the conference. There would be no disclosable criminal record if their restorative plan was properly completed.
•Court-ordered, as the standard sentence for those convicted in the Youth Court. The court would have the power to approve, amend or reject the restorative action plan, which would carry a criminal record. Young offenders who refused to take part in a conference would be sentenced by the court in the usual way.
The report notes how youth conferencing in Northern Ireland has achieved lower re-conviction rates than conventional court sentences and contributed to a reduction in the use of custody. Reconviction rates are notably low in conferences attended by a victim or their representative – which happens in two out of three cases. Nearly nine out of ten victims express satisfaction. Young offenders say they also consider the process fair, though they often find it tough and demanding.
Youth Courts
The Commission, whose work included consultation and engagement with young people who have first-hand experience of the youth justice system as victims, witnesses or offenders, calls for as clear a distinction as possible between the treatment of children and young people by the criminal justice system and adults.
This would include an end to the practice of children and young people being prosecuted in the unsuitable surroundings of an adult Crown Court. All cases against children and young people under 18 would be heard in the Youth Court. Specialist lawyers, magistrates and District Judges would be trained to work with children and young people in the court, as well as Crown Court judges who would hear the most serious cases.
Antisocial behaviour
The report proposes that more use is made of youth conferencing and other restorative methods to deal with the kind of persistent intimidation, harassment and other nuisance behaviour that causes distress to individuals and communities. It recommends that Anti-social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) should only be sought against children and young people as a last resort.
Prevention
Noting how children with untreated conduct disorders at age 10 can cost public services an average £85,000 by the mid-20s, the Commission proposes a reinvestment of resources in early intervention to prevent those with chronic behaviour problems growing into serious, violent and persistent offenders. Research shows how effective services can save much more than their running costs by preventing crime and the need for expensive later intervention.
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Use of custody
Recommending a target for reducing the number children and young people in custody to less than a thousand at any one time, the Commission proposes:
•A statutory threshold on the use of imprisonment, so it is reserved chiefly for those whose violent behaviour poses a danger to others or themselves
•An end to short custodial sentences of less than six months, agreed by those who work with young offenders to serve little constructive purpose
•Greater use of supervised bail accommodation and intensive fostering to end the excessive use of remands in custody. Although one in four young people in custody are awaiting trial, only a quarter when sentenced by magistrates or District Judges are given custodial sentences
•Decommissioning of old, unsuitable Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) and giving consideration to creating Young Offender Academies in major cities, where young people held in secure accommodation would share high-quality education and treatment facilities with those in supervised hostels or living in the community.
Anthony Salz said: “Our reform proposals are positive and constructive in promoting cost-effective prevention; they are fair to the victims of crime in seeking redress and they are demanding on young offenders who will be made more aware of the human consequences of criminal and antisocial behaviour. We are keen to build on the positive aspects of the existing response to youth crime, but determined that interventions and sanctions that are ineffective and wasteful be discarded.
“We need a fresh start to turn round the damaged lives of children and young people who risk becoming our most serious and prolific offenders and to spare society the unacceptably high costs of failure.”
Note
Time for a Fresh Start: The Report of the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour is available, free of charge (excluding p&p), from the Police Foundation, Park Place, 12 Lawn Lane, London SW8 1UD or as a download.
For the full report –
