Youth Offending

Report: 5
Date: 12 December 2000
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report gives an overview of youth offending, reviews performance against targets, and identifies a number of the issues that the MPS is addressing in this area.

A. Supporting information

Introduction

1. Youth offending is a focus of attention in the current MPS policing plan, the Best Value PI regime and the government strategy on crime and disorder.

2. The Crime and Disorder act made a number of changes to the way in which young offenders are dealt with, including introducing Youth Offending Teams and new reprimand and warning frameworks.

3. The current MPS plan includes a target to re-inforce existing effective measures and introduce new strategies to reduce offending by young persons. The aims are:

• to structure the delivery of reprimands and warnings so that they engage both youth and parents in understanding the effects of offending;
• to contribute to reducing the incidence of truancy, which has been linked to youth crime;
• to deal speedily with young offenders.

4. This report gives background information on patterns of youth offending and provides details of MPS response, particularly in improving performance in processing persistent young offenders.

5. The current list of BVPIs includes specific measures on the quality of case papers relating to youth cases. This issue has been the subject of previous discussion, and is not specifically addressed in this report.

Patterns of crime committed by young people, and age and crime profile of young people accused

6. The following analysis is based on details of young people accused of crime during Apr-Sep 1999 and Apr-Sep 2000. The chart below shows the types of crime young people have been involved in during the latter period. Each crime type has been further broken down by age.

Young offenders (age 10-17) - breakdown of accused by crime category

Notes:
*Criminal damage excluding damage to MV (included within autocrime).
**Violent crime excluding robbery of personal property (included within street crime).

7. This chart shows that young people are most likely to be involved in violent crime, autocrime, theft from shops and street crime. The table below shows that young people make up the majority (65 per cent) of those accused of street crime.

Young persons (10-17) as a proportion of all accused (Apr-Sep 2000)

	Young persons accused (age 10-17)	All other# ages of accused
Street crime	65%	35%
Auto-crime	44%	56%
Theft from shops	22%	78%
Burglary	25%	75%
Criminal Damage*	36%	64%
Violent crime**	19%	81%
Drugs	15%	85%
Other	18%	82%
TNOs	24%	76%
Note: * Criminal damage excluding damage to MV (included within autocrime). ** Violent crime excluding robbery of personal property (included within street crime).

8. Young people do not make up a significantly greater share of total accused in 2000 (23.4 per cent of all accused in Apr -Sep 1999 compared with 24.4 per cent for the same period in 2000). The actual number of young people accused however shows a reduction of 2.0 per cent between the two periods.

9. Some shifts in the type of offences that young people are involved in are apparent. As shown in previous research, there has been a large increase in the number of young people involved in street crime. Over the period in question, young people accused of street crime rose by 57 per cent. There were however, reductions in the number of young people accused of burglary (9 per cent reduction), theft from shops (16 per cent reduction) and autocrime (7 per cent reduction).

10. It should be noted that any analysis of people accused takes account only of those crimes where an accused has been identified. The trends may therefore reflect police activity as much as they reflect changes in offending.

11. Within the burglary figures young people are more likely to be accused of non-residential burglary. Of total youth accused of burglary, 53 per cent were accused of non-residential burglary, and 47 per cent of burglary in a dwelling. It is noticeable that the greater reduction between Apr-Sep 1999 and Apr-Sep 2000 relates to non-residential burglary (14 per cent reduction).

12. Overall, there was a similar level of young people accused of crimes of violence against the person between the two time spans. A breakdown of violence against the person shows that more young people were however accused of the crimes of GBH and Offensive Weapon.

Youth case disposal

13. Total figures for youth case disposal between April - Oct 2000 were 17,535. Breaking these down into disposal categories shows that 53 per cent of the youths were charged, whilst 29 per cent were reprimanded and 3% given a warning for their first offence and 7 per cent a warning for their second offence.

Dealing with young offenders

14. The Youth Justice Pledge sets out the government’s commitment to deal with Persistent Young Offenders (PYOs) in 71 days from arrest to sentence.

15. The target was introduced in a Joint Home Office and Lord Chancellor’s Department circular, on 16 September 1998 for introduction on 1 October 1998. This paper introduced the definition of a PYO:

A PYO is a youth, aged 10 to 17 years, who has been sentenced by any criminal court in the UK on three or more separate occasions for one or more recordable offences and, within three years of the last sentencing occasion is subsequently arrested or has information laid against him, for a further recordable offence.

16. The MPS has conducted localised surveys of PYOs. The average borough has about twenty PYOs at any one time.

17. The target of 71 days from arrest to sentence is divided up into sections according to the relevant part of the judicial process.  The sections most relevant to the police are:

Arrest to charge

2 days (70% of cases)

Charge to first court listing

7 days (70% of cases)

Police activity can affect other parts of the target indirectly.

Performance against PYO targets

18. Performance in the MPS should be seen against the rest of the country taking into account the full London perspective. The MPS is clearly critical to success against the pledge. MPS performance to date has made real improvements taking into account the complexity of its demands and structure compared to county forces.

Chart of overall performance against 71-Day PYO pledge

(Source: PNC/Home Office)

19. Police are not responsible for the entirety of the performance and the CPS, YOTs and courts also have sub targets.

Chart of % within target of 2 days & 7 days for MPS

(Source: Sample from CRIS)

20. In the MPS 50% of all PYOs are dealt with inside 71 days but the government target by the end of 2000 is 70%. The trend would indicate that this might not be achieved.

Barriers to performance on PYOs

21. The barriers fall into four categories:

• Knowing about the target - ensuring that all officers in contact with PYOs are aware of their duties
• Identification of PYOs - ensuring that the official definition is used, rather than common sense definitions of persistence
• Informing courts of PYOs - ensuring that the PNC carries details of PYOs
• Reducing delays for PYOs - a simple case, shoplifting, etc., is likely to be charged within hours of arrest and the target achieved. A complex case, more likely from PYOs, is likely to involve one or more of the factors described below.

22. Practical delaying factors are:

• identification parades,
• multiple witness statements,
• medical statements (that take longer),
• forensic analysis,
• video enhancement.

23. These in turn lead to witness availability complications that are often not present for a case dealt with straight away.

Steps already taken

24. The MPS has taken many steps to address the barriers to swift PYO processing. These include:

• Informing staff of policy through, Police Notices, internal publicity, briefings, performance reports and personal issue of reference material (Red Book and pocket-book stickers).
• Improving identification of PYOs through introducing and refining a Youth - Time Interval Survey Form
• Informing the courts - MPS requested the introduction of a new PNC flag. This gives an approximate method of calculating PYO processing. Home Office introduced the new flag on 1st June 2000.

25. In addition, the following steps have been taken to reduce delays in the system:

• Increased availability and better administration of identification parades. Special school arrangements being developed in three sites to increase number of youth parade volunteers available.
• The need for multiple witness statements at time of charging is reduced by all youths now requiring an ‘abbreviated’ file on charge. Rather like the ID parade after charge, this can have the effect of causing a delay at another stage in the justice process. Medical statements are made a specific part of the Youth Court Joint Performance Improvement Plan.
• Fast-tracking of forensic analysis for youth cases achieved. Laboratory forms redesigned.
• Videotape copying and viewing equipment purchased and supplied to each Borough. Negotiations underway to reduce delays for enhancement of complex video formats with Laboratory.

Future plans to improve PYO handling

26. The MPS has been involved in negotiating the Youth Court Joint Performance Improvement Plan (JPIP). The JPIP has been distributed to courts for local additions and ratification. This includes a large number of measures to facilitate the entire system achieving the PYO target. For example, the police agreed as a matter of course to inform of charges all parents/carers who were not present at the time of charge; youth charge information packs to be issued to all youths charged and financial investment to improve chances of cases being dealt with at an early hearing. The plan also included commitments for the immediate notification of charges to Youth Offending Teams.

27. In response to the research by PA Consulting showing non-appearance as a major cause of delay in the system, the MPS introduced a new target. From July 2000 the MPS has attempted execution of all youth warrants for non-appearance within 24 hours. A new monitoring system to support this target is currently being considered.

28. MPS steps to improve resulting on PNC for youth cases are bearing fruit. Systems are in place to get reprimand and warning data onto PNC swiftly. Court sentence data is more problematic, but in Inner London, an electronic link between courts and PNC has been established to pass results quickly and reliably.

29. Finally, the JPIP operates with Youth Courts but not Crown Courts, a major source of long trials that skew the figures. The MPS will attend the first meeting of the London Crown Court Youth Justice Working Group to assess further ways the MPS can support the pledge.

MPS truancy initiatives

30. The current MPS plan includes a commitment to run truancy initiatives at twelve identified boroughs. The first return on these issues is included in the October performance report. This notes that seven of the twelve boroughs have already run initiatives this term. The target is that each of the identified boroughs will run an initiative on at least one day of each school term. The important lesson will be to understand the impact of these initiatives on truancy and youth offending on the boroughs. It is too early to say what impact they will have. This issue can be developed in future reports.

31. The MPS and education officials are working in partnership on the truancy initiatives. The launch of the drive against truancy was give extensive publicity in the summer. A number of initiatives have already been run - and these have also attracted media attention. Borough commanders are being kept informed about activity on other boroughs, and information on levels of truancy is circulated. The focus boroughs for this initiative - those identified by the Department of Education and Employment as having high levels of unauthorised absence - are Barking, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster.

Future plans to deal with youth issues

32. The MPS has been developing a holistic Youth Strategy to encompass its activity in relation to youths. The new strategy, to be launched in 2001, has three main strands: Children and Vulnerable Witnesses, Offenders and Young People at Risk of Offending and Community and Consultation (Promoting Active Citizenship).

33. Initially, the Strategy will set out to consolidate what the MPS does consistently across the whole of London. It will recognise that there is an immense amount of local development tailor-made to boroughs that may or may not be transferable to the whole of London. Part of the strategy hopes to include electronic registration of local projects in either strand to allow sharing of good practice.

34. A briefing on the MPS Youth Strategy was presented to the MPA Consultation, Diversity and Outreach Committee Meeting on Young People in London: Policy Engagement and Consultation on Tuesday 28th November. A copy of the briefing note is attached as Appendix 1.

35. As part of the MPS activity to tackle street crime, £600k is being channelled into diversion activities. This is being planned in partnership with schools, and is aimed at reducing offending and preventing offences. Further information on this initiative will be included in the Street Crime update in the New Year.

Issues

36. Success in dealing with youth offending and in swift processing of persistent young offenders is reliant on

• priority being given to youth offending issues
• resources being devoted to the problem - specifically in criminal justice units, Youth Offending Teams and intelligence analysis units.

B. Recommendation

That Members note the report.

C. Financial implications

None.

D. Review arrangements

Issues identified by PSPM arising from this paper can be addressed in the next report on Youth Offending, planned for three months time.

E. Background papers

The following is a statutory list of background papers (under the Local Government Act 1972 S.100 D) which disclose facts or matters on which the report is based and which have been relied on to a material extent in preparing this report. They are available on request either to the contact officer listed below or to the Clerk to the Police Authority at the address indicated on the agenda.

None.

F. Contact details

The authors of this report are Cath Kitching, MPS Corporate Performance Analysis Unit and Brian Dowling, Restorative Justice and Youth Issues Desk.

For information contact:

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

Appendix 1

MPA Consultation, Diversity and Outreach Committee Meeting on young people in London: policy engagement and consultation

The MPS has been developing a holistic Youth Strategy to encompass its activity in relation to youths. The new strategy, to be launched in 2001, has three main strands: Children and Vulnerable Witnesses, Offenders and Young People at Risk of Offending and Community and Consultation (Promoting Active Citizenship).

Initially the Strategy will set out to consolidate what the MPS does consistently across the whole of London. It will recognise that there is an immense amount of local development tailor made to boroughs that may or may not be transferable to the whole of London. Part of the strategy hopes to include electronic registration of local projects in either strand to allow sharing of good practice.

Strand 1: Children and vulnerable witness

School population based Youth Involvement Officers may replace Schools Involvement Officers with a broader remit to deliver education on safety and crime prevention issues as well as youth crime monitoring.

Presentation materials will be maintained or renewed on issues such as alcohol abuse, prostitution, protection “Street-Wise”, road safety, drugs information, bullying and more. This necessitates liaison with schools, which is generally very well received. Newly piloted projects include promoting ‘school beats’ where officers, with full authority of schools, have one or more schools as their ‘beat’ patrolling playgrounds and corridors as part of the school community. Some activity may be conditional on sustained support from teachers and other youth workers.

The MPS will maintain commitment to Child Protection Teams and developing approaches to facilitate children giving evidence and recording care issues. New systems will come into place to enhance the investigations into Missing Persons.

Already government initiatives have prompted significant resources being spent on speeding up youth justice for Persistent Young Offenders and other youths.

Restorative Justice is high on the Youth Justice Board’s agenda and the MPS will shortly be making procedural changes to facilitate that development. The MPS is currently making a joint bid with the University of Pennsylvania and National University of Australia to run a major project on using Restorative Justice approaches with youths who commit violent offences, street crime and burglary.

Strand 2: Offenders and young people at risk of offending

The MPS has 63 police officers and 3 civilians working with Youth Offending Teams throughout London. They are now under the management of multi-agency managers with a statutory aim to prevent re-offending by young persons.

The nature of the new arrangements has placed the new local partnership at the forefront of reducing offending. While this has benefits for local co-ordination the concept of pan-London initiatives now requires a consensus that is not always forthcoming. The Inner London Youth Justice Chief Officer’s Group have tabled a joint MPS and NACRO model for a pan-London group to deal with numerous co-ordination issues. While this has received much support, there are boroughs that would not subscribe for various reasons.

Additional projects in this strand include truancy patrols, the open publication on the Internet of MPS Youth Policy, Summer Schemes for diversion and many other locally based projects. The development of a court pack for charged youths, now circulated nationally as good practice, was sent to a Hammersmith School for consultation prior to full production. The 13/14 year olds, and their teacher, all made comments which did alter the final product in terms of readability and presentation.

Strand 3: Community and consultation promoting active citizenship

Promoting social inclusion the MPS are looking at mechanisms, as above, to consult with London’s youth, this is not as simple as other consultative projects as those most willing and able are often not those who we would come into contact with on a regular basis.

The MPS will be re-introducing its Cadet Corp as a volunteer group focussing on active-communities and citizenship. Encouragement of Youth Action Groups and other peer-led education and crime prevention projects are intended utilising the positive contributions of young people.

We are working with London Youth (pan-London youth club co-ordinators) to link their activities in with this and Youth Offending Teams. There would be a value in having a pan-London youth issues organisation to work with such groups.

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