Youth crime report

Report: 9
Date: 14 September 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report highlights that the number of young victims and offenders has gradually decreased in the last five years. Within this period Safer School Partnerships were formed and are now present in 310 secondary schools in London. The report details the aims and objectives for Safer Schools Partnerships, together with issues around information sharing and intelligence gathering. The work of Operation Blunt in tackling knife crime in London is described in detail, outlining successful proactive initiatives to reduce the incidence of violent crime.

A. Recommendation

That members note the report and continue to support the work currently taking place.

B. Supporting information

Definitions

1. A young victim is defined as any person less than eighteen years of age.

2. A young offender is defined as any young person aged between ten and seventeen years.

Youth offenders

3. Since the year 2001/02, the number of youths accused of crime in London boroughs has gradually decreased. Exceptions to this are Brent, Kingston upon Thames, Redbridge and Sutton, which have shown an increase in youths accused.

• Brent – 619 youths accused of crime in 2001/02. 669 youths accused in 2005/06.
• Kingston upon Thames – 615 youths accused of crime in 2001/02. 626 youths accused in 2005/06.
• Redbridge – 642 youths accused of crime in 2001/02. 661 youths accused in 2005/06.
• Sutton – 612 youths accused of crime in 2001/02. 885 youths accused in 2005/06.

4. The number of youths accused of crime in London in 2001/02 was 29306. The number in 2005/06 was 23857, a decrease of 5449 youths accused.

5. Key statistics relating to youths accused of crime are as follows:

1. In 2001/02, 20,475 young males were accused of crime, 82.6% of all youth crime recorded.
2. In 2005/06 16,647 young males were accused of crime, 82% of all youth crime recorded.
3. In 2001/02 5101 young females were accused of crime, 17.4% of all youth crime recorded.
4. In 2005/06 4299 young females were accused of crime, 18% of all youth crime recorded.

Youth victims

6. All young people under 17 are considered potentially vulnerable and should receive an enhanced service from the Criminal Justice system. Key statistics relating to youth victims of crime are as follows:

1. Over the period 2001/02 to 2005/06 the number of youth victims of crime has decreased on twenty (20) London boroughs.
2. Overall, the decrease in the number of youth victims of crime is 2361.
3. Lambeth has shown the largest decrease in the number of youth victims of crime during the period 2001/02 to 2005/06, a total of 568.
4. Croydon appears to have the greatest number of youth victims of crime for the last five financial years, however the number is decreasing.

During the months of August and December there is a consistent dip over the five-year period, 2002 – 2006, in the number of youth victims of crime.

Youths and Knife-Enabled Crime

7. Knife-Enabled Crime includes offences of Violence Against the Person, Robbery, Burglary and Sexual Offences excluding possession offences, where a knife is used.

8. 23.6% of Knife-Enabled Crime victims were youths (for crimes recorded 1 Jul 05 – 30 Jun 06). Youth victims feature prominently in Knife-Enabled Personal Robbery where 36.3% were youths; and less so in Knife-Enabled Violence Against the Person (VAP) where 15.1% of victims were youths.

9. 22.2% of accused were youths. Youth accused feature strongly in Knife-Enabled Personal Robbery; 52.1% of those accused of Knife-Enabled Personal Robbery were youths, while 12.8% of those accused of Knife-Enabled VAP were youths. (Accused data is for Knife-Enabled crime recorded 1 July 04 - 30 June 05).

10. Six boroughs contributed 35.1% of victims of Knife-Enabled Crime in the policing year 2005/06: Waltham Forest, Haringey, Newham, Enfield, Hackney and Southwark.

11. Three boroughs contributed 25.1% of persons accused of Knife-Enabled Crime in FY 2005/06; they were Waltham Forest, Haringey and Southwark.

Safer School Partnerships

12. The Safer Schools Partnership (SSP) was set up in response to the Prime Ministers Street Crime Action Group initiative to combat youth crime and has been in operation since April 2002. To date there are currently 187 SSP officers working in approximately 310 schools across London under the banner of SSP.

13. Increased accessibility and familiarity with SSP officers should also improve trust and confidence in the police. Initially at least, this in itself may lead to increased levels of crime reporting.

14. Police and schools are essential partners in the prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour. A safe school environment promotes respect, responsibility and civility and enhances the prospects for maximum achievement and attendance. The Safer School Partnerships provide a way forward for schools, working together with the police and others, to deliver these outcomes for children, young people and their communities.

15. The scheme builds on existing police involvement in schools where police have tended to take essentially a teaching role; the safer schools officer role is more operational. The SSP officers provide a problem-solving resource and those already in post have been able to develop a much closer relationship with the school and its community.

16. The SSP police officer works within the school, in partnership with teachers, other education services and related agencies, to identify, support and work with children and young people regarded as being at high risk of victimisation, offending and social exclusion.

17. One important role is to work with schools to establish appropriate means of dealing with incidents, including restorative justice. This provides a means of reparation to the victim or whole school community by the offender, e.g. by repaying money stolen or repairing damaged property.

18. The overall aims and objectives of the Safer Schools Partnership scheme are:

1. To reduce the prevalence of crime and victimisation amongst young people and to reduce the number of incidents and crimes in schools and their wider communities.
2. To provide a safe and secure school community which enhances the learning environment.
3. To ensure that young people remain in education, actively learning and achieving their full potential.
4. To engage young people, challenge unacceptable behaviour, and help them develop a respect for themselves and their community.

19. The SSP officer will need to work with head teachers, governing bodies and named staff in each of their family or cluster of schools, and the local management group, to agree a programme of activity which will best address both the school and community needs and priorities. This must be based on a joint audit of crime, disorder and other challenging behaviour in and around schools. The programme may include:

1. Preventing and detecting crime, anti-social behaviour and related incidents in and around the school.
2. Improving the security of the school and its site.
3. Assessment of and response to incidents of violence, bullying, harassment and victimisation experienced by pupils and staff.
4. Developing strategies to address truancy and unauthorised absence.
5. Identifying young people at risk of, or involved in, offending and victimisation.
6. Developing responses to drug related incidents.
7. Enabling young people to move through the transition phase from primary to secondary without being victimised.
8. Supporting the introduction of conflict resolution techniques, such as restorative justice, into the school.
9. Developing responses to deal with offences committed by young people in and around the school.
10. Contributing to strategies to encourage the full time education of young people and young offenders.
11. Contributing to the promotion of positive behaviour and citizenship skills.
12. Participating in monitoring and evaluation.

Information and intelligence

20. Police have a statutory duty to provide offender details to Youth Offending Teams (YOT). Multi-agency YOTs include education representatives. Guidelines in the Victim’s Charter also provide time-based requirements for passing victim details to the YOT. The sharing of information and intelligence by SSP officers with partners needs to be considered and completed in accordance with agreed local protocols.

21. Research highlights that risk factors can identify those young people most at risk of becoming offenders. Truancy or exclusion, substance misuse, poor parenting, sibling or peer influence; are all factors that can identify those most at risk. All partners should work together to ensure the most effective targeting of youth resources at those at risk young people.

22. One of the main items of information shared by police with schools will be that which relates to the safety of pupils and staff within the school community. Information needed by police will relate to known offenders’ attendance, or exclusion, and their offending profile and behaviour within the school.

23. Safer School Partnership officers will also be privy to information shared at case conferences within Behaviour Education Support Teams, Youth Inclusion Panels (YIP), Youth Inclusion Support Panels (YISP), Child Protection Teams (CPT) and Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) where they exist on boroughs.

Surveying young people under 16 years of age

24. One area that can be surveyed is year groups within both primary and secondary schools. However, this is dependent on the head teacher being agreeable to the survey and it being conducted when the National Curriculum allows. One major concern of head teachers is how the information gained from the survey impinges on the reputation of their school, once it comes into the public domain, and the accuracy of the results.

25. Another group that can be readily consulted are Volunteer Police Cadets. There are currently just over 1000 Volunteer Police Cadets aged 14 – 21, located in units operating on twenty-eight London boroughs. Just over 33% of cadets are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

26. Safer Neighbourhood Teams are currently using young people from Youth Panels to complete an Environmental Visual Audit (EVA) of their neighbourhood. This may include taking photographs of buildings and places that make them feel unsafe or affect how they feel about their local neighbourhood. These photographs can then be used to facilitate discussion between children, young people, and ward panels, about how they can all work together to make the area safer and a better environment in which to live.

27. To empower young people in police corporate decision-making, the Met Youth Advisory Group (MYAG) was established. Young people provide advice to the MPS alongside the Independent Advisory Group, LGBT Advisory Group, Disability Independent Advisory Group and the Gypsy and Traveller Advisory Group. Young people are also represented on the Territorial Policing (TP) Strategic Stop and Search Advisory Group, the Custody Directorate Advisory Group and TP Operation Blunt Advisory Group.

Operation Blunt (knives and weapons)

28. Operation Blunt commenced its latest London-wide initiative on 15 May 2006, in advance of the launch of the National Knife Amnesty on 24 May. The MPS adopted a holistic approach using intelligence to target problem (hotspot) areas and offenders whilst encouraging the general public to take advantage of the amnesty to 'ditch their knives'.

Stop and search

29. Throughout the campaign the MPS has extensively used its stop and search powers to target problem areas and offenders using both police and partner intelligence. Often stop and searches have taken place in conjunction with high visibility patrols (HVP) and search (knife) arches. These airport style arches, which may be used in conjunction with detector wands, are proving effective as an enforcement tool and visible deterrent. These activities have resulted in over 1000 arrests (youths and adults) and over 900 knife seizures for this phase of Operation Blunt.

Test purchase operations

30. Most London boroughs have conducted test purchase operations in partnership with local Trading Standards. Volunteer Police Cadets are often used to support these age-related test purchase operations. To date over 50 retailers have been reported for unlawfully selling knives to under 16s. Offences have been detected at various places from small retailers to large supermarkets. As a result Operation Blunt will be looking to work with retailers so that 'till prompts' similar to those used when selling alcohol are considered/adopted for knife sales.

Deployment of metal detectors

31. As above, many boroughs have conducted search (knife) arches and search wand operations, mainly focused at high knife crime locations such as transport hubs and shopping centres. A number of operations have also been run at colleges, e.g. Ealing and Haringey, as well as places of public entertainment linked to the night-time economy. The public have expressed strong support for these measures, finding them reassuring in creating safe zones. A recent example is at Tottenham Carnival, on 17 June 06, where entry to the park was through the arches.

Education programmes in schools, etc

32. Safer Schools Officers together with Safer Neighbourhood Teams provide support to schools and college programmes addressing knife crime and gang culture. Some police inputs have been made to year assemblies, particularly focusing upon the 12-16 year groups. Operation Blunt has also advised on an anti-knife theme included within the MissDorothy.com primary school educational package that will be launched soon as part of the ‘Watch Over Me III’ series.

33. Key to the MPS success has been its holistic approach. Although the public are actively encouraged to 'ditch their knives' using the amnesty bins, the campaign is coercive in nature, highlighting the increased risk of being detected and prosecuted should you continue to carry a knife. The media also has its role to play and the MPS has been proactive in encouraging continued press coverage on Operation Blunt and the knife amnesty.

34. The MPS media strategy has been one of being 'on the front foot' rather than reacting to the news events of the day. The MPS Directorate of Public Affairs are currently planning a new anti-knife crime publicity campaign, which will target the 14-19 year age group and look to promote the MPS Internet sites.

Knife amnesty

35. The amnesty began on 15 May 2006 and ended at midnight on 9th July. During this period, 8273 weapons were deposited across London.

UK Youth Parliament (UKYP)

36. The MPS Diversity and Citizen Focus directorate have funded the production of a hard-hitting anti-knife crime DVD produced by the UKYP that will be distributed after 7 October to a wide youth audience to deter them from carrying and using knives illegally.

List of abbreviations

CAIC

Child Abuse Investigation Command

EVA

Environmental Visual Audit

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

MYAG

Met Youth Advisory Group

TP

Territorial Policing

YOT

Youth Offending Team

C. Race and equality impact

1. Specific initiatives through the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate and Black Police Association, seek to increase engagement among traditionally ‘hard to hear’ sections of the community. Innovative approaches are being tried to engage with young people and gain a greater understanding of their issues.

2. Through the training programme and Schools conferences, officers and partners involved with the Safer Schools Partnerships and Safer Neighbourhoods Teams are receiving diversity training input on areas such as identifying young people at risk, as well as supporting victims and witnesses of crime. Such training is enabling officers to gain a better understanding of how to work and interact with young people and understand how young people view the world, in particular those from different communities.

3. The Chid Abuse Investigation Command (CAIC) is developing initiatives with distinct communities in London around ritualistic belief-related child abuse. The CAIC is working closely with the London Child Protection Committee and engaging with communities.

D. Financial implications

1. The training requirement for Every Child Matters still awaits evaluation. It is anticipated that various levels of training will be required for officers who have most and least direct involvement with young people. Training packages are under evaluation and training will commence within the next year.

2. Corporate MPS Information Technology systems will need to be updated to include the requirements of the Children Act. Costings are unknown at this time.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: David Harney, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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