Vulnerable youngsters need help to steer them away from a life of crime, says Toby Harris, MPA Chair

39/02
15 April 2002

Diverting young people away from crime is the key to reducing street crime and persistent offending, Toby Harris, Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority will tell a youth crime conference In London tomorrow (Tuesday).

“Preventing youth crime is something that must be treated as a top priority if we are to reverse the dramatic increase in street robberies – often carried out by children on other children, and more often than not involving the theft of mobile phones,” he said today.

“The Met has been successful in arresting one thousand robbers and 17,000 other criminals through its Operation Safer Streets, and they are to be congratulated. Lawbreakers need to be apprehended and taken off the streets. 

“But the problem is, many of these offenders are young and are released by the over-stretched criminal justice system back onto the streets to offend again and again, with very little to deter them.

“Reforms are on the way and we need to incorporate ways of targeting youngsters who are in danger of becoming offenders before they turn to a life of crime.

“Early intervention in these young people’s lives is the key to diverting them away from crime. Often they have been victims of abuse, bullying and crime themselves. By identifying these vulnerable youngsters and their problems at an early stage, we can work with them and their parents to help them lead more productive and law-abiding lives.”

Toby Harris will speak at the Youth Justice Board’s conference on preventing youth crime in London, at the New Connaught Rooms, London, WC2, tomorrow, Tuesday 16 April. Other speakers include the Home Secretary and the Met Commissioner, Sir John Stevens.

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