What happened last year

In September, the Government produced a leaflet called ‘Stopping Youth Crime – Tell us what you think’. This asked young people questions about crime and justice. As well as the leaflet, the questions were put on 6 popular websites used by children and young people.

Around 2,000 leaflets were filled in by young people and nearly 6,000 replied on-line. We also show some of the things that adults said about a longer version of ‘Stopping Youth Crime – Tell us what you think’. They answered different questions, but about similar subjects. We have put in here some of their ideas too.

We asked

To help the court decide what punishment to give a young offender, what should it think about?

You said

Stopping him getting involved in crime 5978 (70%)
Keeping him safe and healthy 1518 (18%)
Making the victim of the crime feel satisfied 1031 (12%)

You also said that it was important to focus on: [perhaps as ‘post-its’ stuck on a board or similar visual representation]

Nature of the crime Fair punishment
Increased monitoring Rehabilitation
Circumstances of committing crime Public safety
Peer and family pressures A second chance
Fairness to victims Reparation
Young person’s age

“Make sure the young person knows and understands that he has committed a crime”
“Kids are aware that they will not be put in prison so it encourages them to commit crime”
“Avoid prisons – kids learn more techniques there”
“Have an interest in the person and not only the crime”
“Punishment should suit the crime”

Adults said

• Happy that courts will think about the whole family
• It is important to prevent offending, but judges must also think about the health and welfare of young offenders

We asked and you said

Is an information pack a good way of explaining what happens in court?

Yes 7408 (85%)
No 1270 (15%)

Is having a special worker for young people in court a good idea?

Yes 4223 (81%)
No 1004 (19%)

Many of you thought there should be a pack and a special worker. You would like a video version of the information pack - or DVD and CD-ROM versions. Some of you suggested an interactive website with virtual tours.

You also said

“Have a trial court”
“Posters and leaflets given at school would be more helpful”
“A youth worker or special worker who is separate from the system”
“Explain through young people who have been through it themselves”
“Judges should use plain English in court”
“Teach court processes at school”
“Schools tell us about drugs so why can they not tell us about courts, GBH and stealing as well?”
“Too much information to take in”
“A special person who visits schools and explains court processes”
“Some of the jury should be the same age as the defendant”

Adults said

• There should be more support for defendants and their families to help them understand better what is happening.

We asked and you said

Should judges for young people be specially chosen and trained to deal with young people’s crimes?

Yes 5680 (85%)
No 1040 (15%)
Would the money for training judges be better spent elsewhere?

Yes 897 (47%)
No 993 (53%)

You also said

“Specially trained judges would understand us better”
“More activities should be made available for young people so that they are off the streets and do not get into crime”
“Spend money on training younger judges”
“Get judges to spend a number of days with young people”
“Put judges on work placements with young people”

Adults

• Had mixed views about whether there should be special judges for young offenders.
• Agreed that all judges should receive training on dealing with children and young people.

We asked and you said

For punishing young people in the community, are the 4 choices:
let go without punishment;
pay a fine;
a community group decides punishment; or
two or three smaller punishments
enough for the courts?

Yes 5982 (70%)
No 2613 (30%)
Is it a good idea to take a young person away from his/her family if they are the reason for his/her involvement in crime?

Yes 6091 (71%)
No 2462 (29%)

You also said

“Sentencing should be toughened up”
“Parents should have more control over their kids”
“There is enough choice already”
“Put responsibility on the parents”
“Splitting families does not help, the entire family should be treated”

Adults said

• It is better to keep young offenders in their local community rather than sending them to prison
• To make community sentences effective, we need the other local services to back them up
• It is very important to get young offenders back into education, training or into employment

We asked and you said

Is it a good idea to keep a young person out of prison if someone keeps an eye on him?

Yes 5313 (63%)
No 3177 (37%)
Is this fair to victims?

Yes 3572 (48%)
No 3896 (52%)
If a young person is sentenced to custody, is a minimum of two months?

Too short 3654 (43%)
Too long 998 (12%)
About right 3817 (45%)
Many of you thought it better to use community sentences. You also thought that it would be better for them to have mentors and some constructive work to do in their community. Some of you said that there should be short spells in ‘prison’, tagging and boot camps.

You also said

“Give them curfews and public bans”
“Have punishments that benefit the community as well as punish the offender”
“Make them finish school”
“The victim should be involved in deciding the punishment”
“Make them do something they dislike doing”
“The judge should take away their playstation instead of a £10 fine, it would have more effect”

Adults said

• Community punishments are better than ‘prison’ for young people.
• Serious or dangerous young offenders should be locked up.

What happens next?

Ministers have seen what was said in consultation, and decided what we should now do.

Judges should think about the welfare of a young offender as well as protection of the community when deciding how to punish them. But their most important job is to prevent future offending. We will make a new law to make this clear.
We will prepare an information pack for young defendants so they understand what happens in court. We will involve young people in putting this together. We are talking to charities about how they can help young people in court. We will ask judges and lawyers to use simpler language in court.
We will train judges and lawyers in how to work with children and young people.
We will help to provide more accommodation for young people on bail or community sentences.
We will simplify the system of community sentences. We will link these to new centres which will provide activities – education and training, counselling, sports – for young people on community sentences.
We will provide more help with services for young people on community sentences or coming out of young offender institutions.
We will create a new sentence with strict supervision and electronic tagging so that young offenders can have a last chance in the community.
We will keep young offender institutions available, not only for serious crimes, but also for those who do not stop committing crimes.
We will highlight activities to help young offenders to go back to education and training or employment when leaving young offender institutions.
We will improve the training of youth justice workers.

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