Youth Justice News
| Author | Tim Bateman |
| Published date | 01 August 2006 |
| Date | 01 August 2006 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1473225406065564 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
YOUTH JUSTICE NEWS
Copyright ' 2006 The National Association for Youth Justice
Published by SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi)
www.sagepublications.com
ISSN 1473-2254, Vol 6(1): 153–160
DOI: 10.1177/1473225406065564
Youth Justice News
Compiled by Tim Bateman
Correspondence: Tim Bateman, Nacro, 169 Clapham Road, London SW9 0PU, UK.
Email: tim.batemanVnacro.org.uk
Youth Justice Annual Statistics Show a Reduction in Offending but a
Rise in Convictions and Continued Overrepresentation of Black and
Ethnic Minority Young People
Annual youth justice statistics for 2004/05, published by the Youth Justice Board for
England and Wales (YJB), show a slight reduction in the number of offences resulting
in a youth justice ‘disposal of some sort’, from 287,883 in the previous year, to 287,013.
Burglary, drugs offences, vehicle theft and other motoring offences have fallen, while
violence against the person, robbery, theft and handling stolen goods, and breach of
statutory orders all show an increase over the previous year.
As total offending has declined, the number of young people receiving a reprimand,
final warning, or court disposal has risen from 185,084 in 2003/04 to 195,483 in
2004/05. Alongside this increase in the numbers processed by youth justice system,
there have also been rises in the total core budget for youth offending teams (YOTs).
Excluding grants such as those to resource intensive supervision and surveillance
programmes, funding for YOTs has increased from £201.9 million in 2002/03, to
£217.8 million in 2003/04 and £226.3 million in 2004/05, with the YJB contributing
19.4 per cent of the total in the latter year.
In terms of sentencing, the referral order remains by far the most frequent penalty,
followed by the supervision order, with the former accounting for more than 23 per
cent of all court disposals. The number of custodial penalties has fallen slightly overall
(by 82 over the previous year), but there has been a significant increase in the number
of children under the age of 15 years who receive custodial sentences. Eight hundred
and sixty four children aged 10–14 years were sentenced to custody during 2004/05,
marking a 16 per cent rise over the equivalent figure for 2002/03.
The overrepresentation of black young people continues to be evident in the data.
Black or black British young people are less likely to be granted unconditional bail than
their white counterparts, more likely to be placed on bail ISSP and more likely to have
bail refused. While such young people account for 9.9 per cent of all remand decisions,
j:yj065564 19-6-2006 p:65 c:0
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