Youth Crime Statistics

Hello,

We have researched and found:

Crime statistics based on the British Crime Survey (BCS) and police records show that crime has dropped by 9% in 2009-10 compared to last year!

According to the Youth Offender Team (YOT), data published by the Ministry of Justice showed that violent crime amongst youths actually fell between 2007/08 and 2008/09 nationwide.

(YOT Data for the year 2009/10 has recently been published (click link)

Hello readers,

Here is another news article (click the link) showing why we think our issue is important! Read more and give us some feedback.

The Young Crime Team

Our Interview

Hello,

We have done our interview with 2 Police Officers from Kilburn Police Station. We interviewed Constable Michaeledes and Constable Abbott. We asked them about their experience with youth crime and what they think causes youth crime. Surprisingly, both officers had slightly different views on what they think causes young people to turn to crime.

Constable Michaeledes thought that youth crime occurs for a number of reasons some of these factors are, for example: very unhappy home life, exclusion was one of the main factors and truancy was another main factor, because crimes tend to take place when youths are not in education. Also, depravation, for example, homelessness or a lack of money tends also to be a risk factor in youths committing crime.

On the other hand, Constable Abbott thought that youth crime occurs down to boredom, and that teenagers are not given any sort of means to be active and facilities to do other things, they tend to end up on the streets in gangs. He thought it also relates to the fact of peer pressure as well. The youths tend to end up involved in crime because they’re in a group and peer pressure obviously affects that.

Both officers thought that young people should be more engaged and co-operative with the police because, if they come forward and tell the police the issues young people face, there is more of a chance for the police to understand what they need and how to deal with it.

They told us that in the Borough of Brent they have a scheme called the 'YES' Programme- which stands for Youth Engagement Scheme. This basically is where we have for example different units from the Metropolitan Police Service, who come and read presentations to young people. They talk to youths about stop and search and, give the basic rights as to when they are stopped and searched- so they are well informed if they are.

The Police Officers said that the Police are trying very hard to make young and old people feel more safer when going out on the streets. they have said that there are many schemes involving parents and young people to help reduce crime levels.

The interview with the Police Officers gave us plenty of information which we didn't know before. They were very helpful and we appreciate it a lot. Thank you very much to both police officers.

If you want to see part of the interview visit this link.

The Young Crime Team

Video on Knife Crime

Hello,

Throughout our research, we have discovered that there has been a significant rise in 'Knife Crime'.We have found a video on Knife Crime- teenage stabbings. Watch it and let us know what you think. We think that crime reported in the media does actually usually, involve knife crime

Even though statistics show crime is in fact reducing.

The Young Crime Group

BBC School Report

We've done our report and everything looks great. Seems like the endless amounts of research paid off! It looks like a huge success, thanks to everyone who participated and all of the sources we used.

To view our report visit the following link:

http://www.islamiaschools.com/enrichment/22/114

The Young Crime Team

Hello,

There has been yet again another report in the media of Youth Crime!

'Double shooting in East London leaves 16-year-old dead'

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/844908-double-shooting-in-east-london-leaves-16-year-old-dead#ixzz13re2gYmT

The Young Crime Team

Hello,

There has been a very recent article in the news related to our issue.

'A 15-year-old boy who punched a cat to death was arrested after bragging about the attack on Facebook.'

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/845355-teen-cat-killer-caught-after-facebook-boast#ixzz13rcIwA1K

The Young Crime Group

Edlington Brothers Case

This is one of the news articles which inspired us to choose Young Crime as our issue to raise awareness for.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Edlington brothers jailed for torture of two boys

Young pair who subjected boys to 90-minute attack involving torture and sexual humiliation to serve at least five years

• 
  Peter Walker and Martin Wainwright
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 January 2010 14.03 GMT
• Article history

A sketch from Sheffield crown court where two Edlington brothers were sentenced for the torture of two boys. The sketch shows the prosecution barrister Nicholas Campbell QC (bottom left, white hair with glasses), the judge, Mr Justice Keith (right), and the defendants (faces obscured). Photograph: Priscilla Coleman/Getty Images

A judge sentenced two young brothers who beat and tortured another pair of boys to indefinite detention today, as the head of child protectionservices in their home town apologised for the way staff had failed the public in the case.

The brothers, now 11 and 12, carried out "appalling and terrible" assaults on their younger victims after leading them from a playground to waste land in Edlington, South Yorkshire, in April last year, Mr Justice Keith told Sheffield crown court.

He told the boys that while he was setting a minimum detention period of five years, the risk they posed to the public and their lack of apparent remorse meant that they were likely to be locked away for considerably longer.

"The fact is this was prolonged, sadistic violence for no reason other than that you got a real kick out of hurting and humiliating [the victims]," he said, directly addressing the brothers. "The bottom line for the two of you is that you both pose a serious risk of harm to others. Your crimes are truly exceptional."

Neither boy reacted to the sentence, but relatives of the victims shook their heads. One of the mothers yelled abuse as the brothers were led out of court, banging a glass partition with her fist and sobbing.

Immediately afterwards, the acting head of children's services in Doncaster admitted that the department he took over last year had been "totally broken".

Nick Jarman promised a thorough investigation into why no stronger action was taken against the boys despite a long record of violent attacks by both of them against other children and adults.

Giving an unqualified apology for the "admitted failings which led to this terrible incident", Jarman said action would be taken against staff deemed to have mishandled the affair. Only one member of staff had been disciplined so far, he said.

Outside court, Temporary Superintendent Ian Bint, of South Yorkshire police, was asked whether the brothers' parents should face a criminal investigation. He said: "It's something we will be looking at … in the light of what has come out in court."

In the most notorious crime committed by British children since James Bulger was murdered in 1993, the brothers targeted their victims apparently at random as they rode their BMX bikes in Edlington on a Saturday morning.

They led the victims, then nine and 11, to waste ground and subjected them to a 90-minute ordeal during which they were robbed, beaten, stamped on, struck with bricks and other objects, choked and burned. They also endured a series of humiliations, many of them sexual. The older boy almost died from his injuries.

Sheffield crown court heard how the brothers had been placed with foster parents in Edlington less than three weeks before the attacks. They had grown up in nearby Doncaster with a violent, chaotic family life described by one defence barrister as "toxic".

The judge acknowledged the impact of such an upbringing but told the boys they appeared obsessed with controlling others "by domination, degradation and inflicting pain for the purpose of [your] own emotional pleasure". They also showed a "chilling detachment" and lack of remorse, he said. "You will only be released when the authorities are satisfied that the risks which you pose are such that you can safely be released."

A serious case review found that various agencies missed 31 opportunities to intervene with the boys' family.

The Young Crime Group

Hello.

We have just had a comment:

'What has inspired us to choose this issue?' Joe

Answer:

Before we picked our issue for our BBC School Report a police officer from our local police station came to visit our school for an assembly for the whole school. During this assembly, we discovered that all the questions asked by students in our school were negative. It seemed to us that this issue was looked upon in a very negative aspect from young people our age and, that they weren't convinced that the police and government were doing enough for this issue. This was part of the reason why we chose to pick this issue- because we wanted to show people that this issue is important and that we do want to make a difference.

Also, thanks to recent events in the media inspired us to choose this issue. There was a specific case- The Edlington Brothers case. This case showed us how horrific some cases of Youth Crime are and showed us that some young people suffer terrible consequences for Youth Crime. We wanted to raise awareness and tell people how to stay safe and how to prevent it.

We hope this has answered your question.

The Young Crime Group

Hi,

Here's a short video explaining some reasons why teenagers resort to crime in London from

public's view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6ljzcfFido

Young Crime Group

Hello,

As part of our issue we are researching the statistics in different boroughs all over london. For the past week we have been focussing on our local borough, Brent. We have come across an adobe acrobat file explaining what the Borough of Brent are planning to do for Youth Crime.

This involves:

1. To reduce youth offending

2. To reduce re-offending and target persistent and high risk offenders

3. To develop targeted crime prevention and early intervention work

4. To reduce youth victimisation

5. To improve levels of consultation with young people and increase their levels of participation 6. To improve partnership working and co-operation between young people and police

If you wish to see the Youth Crime Reduction Strategy for Brent the link is below.

http://www.brentbrain.org.uk/BRAIN/braincf.nsf/Images/Brent_Youthcrime_reduction_strategy/$file/Brent_Youthcrime_reduction_strategy.pdf

The Young Crime Group

Hello,

We have been really busy researching information for our BBC School Report issue of Youth Crime. We have seen different reliable websites and compared different information. Below is some general information about Youth Crime and an insight to why we were inspired to choose this topic.

Source: http://www.connexions-northlondon.co.uk/sections.php?sectionID=62&type=3

Youth Crime Youth crime In general:

young people are responsible for 40% of crimes such as theft, burglary, robbery and violence and youth crime and fear of youth crime are blighting many communities. Tackling youth crime is a priority for the government and it has introduced major changes to the youth justice system - which together with preventive measures - aim to reduce offending by young people. The story of youth crime in London is good news and bad news. Looking through the latest figures (June 2003) from the Metropolitan Police, these are the main points:

* Against a rise in total crime, the number of youths accused fell by 12%

* Youth street crime fell by almost a quarter

* The number of youths accused of drugs offences rose by 10%, making drugs the largest crime category after theft and handling and violence against the person.

* The total number of youth victims fell by 5%

The Metropolitan Police define 'youths' as anyone aged between 10 and 17, so these statistics are a rough guide only.

WHAT ARE WE DOING NEXT?

We have now appointed different roles to do different things in our group. We have chosen them

according to our strengths and weaknesses.

In our group there are:

-A director (who makes sure everyone is doing what they're meant to be doing and manages the group as a whole).

-Reporters x2 (they report the news report in the BBC School Report).

-Script writer x2 (they prepare the script for the BBC School Report).

-Camerawomen (she films the interviews, reports etc.)

-Organiser (she HAS to be organised and make sure all of the group's work and evidence is neat and in order).

-Blog writer x3 (they have to write the blog and make sure everything is up to date).

-Researcher x2 (they have to do the research our group needs for the BBC School Report).

Everyone has a big responsibility and we hope we all work as a team so our report is a success!

INTRODUCTION

Hello today we were introduced to the BBC school report project. Our teachers explained what we would be doing and how everything would be carried out. We were put into 3 groups and each group were meant to choose a theme they would be focusing on. Our group decided to do their topic on Youth Crime.

WHY DID WE CHOOSE THIS TOPIC?

We chose this because we feel that it is often mentioned in the media, but no one does anything to try and prevent it from occurring. We wanted to show people that our research shows that crime is reducing and, to try and change the unfair images people have of young people.We also wanted to tell people how to stay safe and how to prevent them from resulting to crime. We feel this issue is extremely vital, as people all over the country- young or old are affected by it. We want to show young people a positive aspect on crime as that is rarely shown in the media. Throughout the course we are hoping to change the way people think of young people and keep people more aware of the consequences of Youth Crime.

WHAT ARE WE PLANNING TO DO?

In our BBC School Report we are planning to create awareness of what we feel strong about. We know that our issue is very popular in the media, but we want to show people that not all young people are the same and that the unfair images that they have of us is wrong. We are hoping to include an interview with police officers, as they have a powerful influence over society. We will take a close look at crime statistics and rates in all of the different Burroughs in London and we will also show you how to stay safe from crime and what police and local councils are trying to do to tackle crime.

Keep reading our blog for more updates!