Government's justice reforms have had 'little impact' on tackling youth crime » Central Government » 24dash.com

The Government's justice reforms have had little impact on youth crime and ministers have "overstated" their success, experts claimed today.

A report by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King's College London said most youth justice targets had been missed despite a "substantial" increase in spending.

The independent study said: "Targets have been missed with self-reported youth offending remaining stable.

"All the expenditure and activity to reduce youth crime has had no measurable impact."

It added: "Claims of significant success are overstated."

The experts assessed the impact of reforms since the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act which set up the Youth Justice Board - the quango which oversees the way young criminals are punished - and youth offending teams in England and Wales.

They found that since 2000/01, spending on youth justice has increased by 45% in real terms.

But targets on reducing re-offending have all been missed, with latest figures showing "little progress", the report said.

"The Government has been beset with problems in setting, revising and failing to hit its reconviction targets for children," it added.

Targets on providing accommodation, education, training and employment, reducing substance misuse and improving mental health had also slipped, it said.

CCJS director Richard Garside said: "The Government's decade-long youth justice experiment was a bold attempt to deploy the full force of the youth justice system to tackle problematic and disruptive behaviour by young people.

"This new research suggests that the experiment has largely failed, if reported youth offending is the measure of success.

"As the Government continues to explore ways to control public spending this research suggests that ever growing criminal justice budgets are unlikely to deliver the long-term or sustainable success."

Deputy director and report author Enver Solomon said: "The Government's record on youth crime and tackling the multiple needs of children caught up in the youth justice system is less impressive than many would have expected following a wide-ranging programme of reform and substantial investment.

"This raises questions about the success of the reforms in making an impact on the number of children and young people who offend, and demonstrates that the youth justice agencies can do little more than regulate youth crime.

"The Government has placed too high expectations on the youth justice system and should be clearer about its limitations."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "The Government is committed to tackling youth offending and reducing its impact on communities by intervening early with young people to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour.

"Much has been achieved in tackling youth crime. Reoffending among juveniles fell by more than 17% between 2000 and 2005 and overall youth offending levels remain stable.

"However, there is clearly more work to do and we are pushing forward our efforts to reduce re-offending further, including by launching a Youth Crime Action Plan this summer.

"Long-term, sustainable reductions in re-offending by children and young people require parents and carers, the community, local agencies and young people themselves to work in partnership to tackle the risk factors associated with offending."

Rod Morgan, who resigned as head of the Youth Justice Board last year, said the study's findings were "almost incontrovertible" in showing that the Government had directed too much money towards the youth justice system and too little towards dealing with the social problems which push young people into crime.

Mr Morgan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I agree whole-heartedly with the King's College report that the centre of gravity of spending is distorted. It is precisely some of the trends they are talking about - the increased used of criminalisation, the number of youths we have in custody - that led me to resign.

"If we are serious about preventing youth crime, it has something to do with the youth justice system, but it has much more to do with broader social policies relating to the family, relating to education and housing etc.

"One of the things that pleases me is that since I resigned in February last year, there is evidence that there is a change of direction. I am seriously pleased that the Department of Children, Schools and Families under Ed Balls seems to be engaging much more with the whole issue of youth crime prevention.

"That is what has got to happen. We have got to shift spending from the excessive use of custody and criminalisation to work with parents and work in the community to engage with young people who are falling out of mainstream services, particularly education."