Thursday, 20 November 2008
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Youth crime
Youth crime harms communities, creates a culture of fear and damages the lives of some of our most vulnerable young people.
Reducing youth crime and improving the youth justice system is a central part of our effort to build safer communities and to tackle the problem of social exclusion.
What causes youth crime?
These are some of the major risk factors that increase the chances of young people committing crimes:
- troubled home life
- poor attainment at school, truancy and school exclusion
- drug or alcohol misuse and mental illness
- deprivation such as poor housing or homelessness
- peer group pressure
What we’re doing about youth crime
Stopping it before it starts
We’ve introduced several intervention programmes to treat the broader social problems that are risk factors in increasing the chances of youth crime, including:
Sure Start
This programme aims to improve community health and well-being by providing services such as childcare to families in disadvantaged areas.
Connexions
This school-based programme provides support and advice to young people to improve behaviour and reduce truancy.
Neighbourhood Renewal
This programme aims to improve community services in areas that struggle economically.
Rehabilitation and sentencing
Sentences and interventions designed to prevent offending and reoffending include:
- Referral Orders – the young person is required to agree a contract of behaviour with their parents/guardians and the victim (where appropriate), to repair the harm caused by the offence and address the causes of the offending behaviour.
- Action Plan Orders – three-month, intensively supervised community service programmes focusing on education and involving the young person’s parents/guardians
- Reparation Orders – court orders requiring a young person to repair the harm caused to an individual or the community, for example, through mediation or community service work
- a requirement for parents to attend counselling and guidance sessions where they receive help in dealing with their children
- Electronic Tagging, as part of an Intensive Supervision & Surveillance Programme (ISSP) – for the most persistent offenders aged 12-16 year olds, on bail or on remand in local authority accommodation
For more detail on youth sentencing and a complete list of sentences
Dedicated Youth Offending Teams
Youth offending teams (YOTs) are an important part of our strategy to deal with youth crime. YOTs include representatives from the police, social services, health, education and housing. Their job is to identify the needs of each young offender and identify the problems that make the young person offend, as well as measuring the risk they pose to others. This enables the YOT to identify suitable programmes to address the needs of the young person, so they can be rehabilitated, through:
- education, training or employment
- drug rehabilitation
- mental health assessment and treatment
- provision of accommodation
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Monday, 10 November 2008
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Crime & The Media
Teenage deaths exceed 2007 total | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The number of teenagers to die violent deaths in London this year has reached 27, exceeding the number killed in the city during 2007. Craig Marshall, 19, from Hanbury Road, Acton, died in hospital on Friday morning after turning up at a west London police station with stab wounds. He was the 27th teenager to die violently so far in 2008, exceeding the 26 violent teenage deaths last year. Two men have been arrested in connection with Mr Marshall's death. His mother, Sharon Marshall, said she had lost her "baby boy". Mr Marshall arrived injured at the front counter of Acton police station on Thursday night. He was taken to hospital but died a few hours later. Police said he was thought to have been attacked outside Rufford Tower in Lexden Road.
"He was a good kid, he wasn't mixed up in any gangs," Mrs Marshall said. "My mind is a mess. I can't cope with this right now. You hear about these kids dying but nothing is ever done." Murder squad detectives are investigating the attack, which happened at about 2300 BST. Police and forensic officers have been searching the area around Rufford Tower. A Scotland Yard spokesman said officers were investigating the possibility that the death was drugs related. Nineteen of the 27 teenagers killed violently in London this year have been victims of knife crime. Earlier this week London Mayor Boris Johnson victims' families at a London conference aimed at "shaping" his strategy on youth violence. Mr Johnson described the reduction of youth violence as "a mammoth task that will take the full commitment of many of us working tirelessly together". More than 2,000 people marched through London last weekend in protest at the use of knives by young people. The death of a teenager after a stabbing in west London in September raised the number of teenagers killed in violent incidents in the capital this year to 27. He died after being chased by a group of youths in Edmonton, north London, and stabbed in the chest. He was with nine friends when they became involved in a row with another group after getting off a night bus. Mr Alizada was stabbed in the chest. Two men have been charged with murder. Kevin Lewis, 18, from Edmonton, was sentenced to five years youth detention after being found guilty of the student's manslaughter. Five men have been charged with murdering the 19-year-old. Mr Buraleh's friend escaped unharmed. A man has been charged with the murder. Four men have been charged with his murder. 23 February 2008: Vietnamese student Tung Le, 17, was stabbed in the heart outside a Westminster club. Despite emergency surgery he died on 2 March. A man was charged with murder. The 18-year-old was studying geography at Queen Mary University, east London. His body was found by his mother. A man has been charged with murder. He died the following day. A man has been charged with the murder. A woman was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. A teenage boy was charged with the murder. A 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy have been charged with the murder. He had celebrated his 16th birthday the previous day. Police said post-mortem tests showed his throat was cut by glass. Jake Fahri, 19, from Lee, south-east London, pleaded not guilty to his murder at the Old Bailey. 24 May 2008: Eighteen-year-old Rob Knox was killed in a fight outside a bar in Sidcup, south-east London. An actor who had won a small part in the next Harry Potter film, he was one of four men stabbed in the incident outside the Metro Bar in Station Road. A man was charged with his murder and with wounding five others. 24 May 2008: Sharmaarke Hassan, 17, was found in Gilbeys Yard, Camden, with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to hospital with severe injuries and died on 28 May. 2 June 2008: The body of Arsema Dawit, 15, was found in a lift at Matheson Lang House, Baylis Road, Waterloo. A post-mortem examination showed she had died from multiple stab wounds. A man was charged with Arsema's murder. 29 June 2008: Ben Kinsella, 16, died after being stabbed in Holloway, north London. A post-mortem examination found he had multiple stab wounds to the torso. Three men pleaded not guilty to his murder at the Old Bailey. 4 July 2008: Shakilus Townsend, 16, was stabbed and beaten with a baseball bat in Thornton Heath, south London. Police says it was a "planned and targeted attack" by a group of youths wearing hooded tops and bandanas. Five youths and a teenage girl have been charged with his murder. 7 July 2008: David Idowu, 14, died three weeks after being stabbed in Great Dover Street, south-east London. He had suffered stab wounds to his chest and stomach. A 16-year-old youth has been charged with murder. Two men have been charged with his murder. 17 July 2008: Freddy Moody Boateng, 18, died after being stabbed. The attack happened in Guildford Road, Lambeth. He was taken to a south London hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. 6 August 2008: Ryan Bravo, 18, from Brixton, south London, was shot dead in a Costcutter store in Walworth, south-east London. A post-mortem examination revealed he died from a single gunshot wound to the back. A man has been charged with his murder. 16 August 2008: Nilanthan Murddi died from a single stab wound to the throat in Sumner Road, Croydon, south London. A man has been charged with his murder. 24 August 2008: Charles Junior Hendricks, 18, who was known as CJ, was found with stab wounds near Selborne Road in Walthamstow, east London. He was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital in nearby Leytonstone but died from his injuries. A 16-year-old boy has been remanded in custody charged with his murder. 30 August 2008: Fourteen-year-old Shaquille Smith was stabbed in the stomach as he sat on a bench near his home in Hackney, east London. He and his sister had allegedly been involved in an argument with a group of about 15 youths before the stabbing. Six teenagers have been charged with Shaquille's murder. 13 September 2008: Semi-professional footballer Oliver Kingonzila was found with stab wounds outside the E Bar in Croydon, south London. He died shortly afterwards. A man has been charged with his murder. 26 September 2008: Craig Marshall, 19, from Acton, west London, turned up at the front counter of Acton police station suffering from stab wounds. Police believe he was attacked outside Rufford Tower in Lexden Road, Acton. He died a few hours later in hospital. A man has been charged with his murder. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You hear about these kids dying but nothing is ever done 
