Youth crime soaring as prosecutions plummet Fewer violent criminals face justice as police numbers drop
THE number of young criminals being prosecuted in Birmingham is set to plunge to a six-year-low, despite an explosion in gang violence.
And the total number of cases being dealt with in youth, magistrates’ and crown courts is projected to fall by 27 per cent in 2018, as violent crime rockets.
Figures released by West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service show how fewer criminals are now facing justice at a time when police numbers have been slashed.
The city’s courts dealt with 871 cases involving under-18s in 2017, compared to 1,028 in 2016 and 1,327 in 2013.
Yet by July 31 this year just 502 court cases involving the age category had been dealt with at court. The projected figure for 2018 is 861, the lowest number since 2013.
In April, it was revealed that violent crime was 30 per cent higher in the West Midlands than nine years ago, while police officer numbers have dropped by a quarter.
Leaked Home Office documents suggested there may be a link between rising crime rates and falling police numbers.
In the West Midlands there were 52,176 crimes of violence against the person reported in the year to September 2017 – up 29 per cent from the 40,379 reported for 2009.
Over the same period, the fulltime number of police officers at the force fell from 8,694 in 2009 to 6,535 in 2017, a loss of almost 2,160 officers or some 25 per cent. By contrast, Birmingham has seen an explosion in youth crime over the past 18 months, much of it linked to new violent street gangs.
Inner-city areas including Aston, Lozells and Handsworth and Northfield in the south of the city have seen murders, shootings, stabbings and robberies, much of the crime being linked to drugs.
West Midlands Police said it had been working with Youth Offending Teams to ‘explore alternatives’ to prosecution for some under-18s.
The force also pointed to the use of community resolutions, rather than the prosecution of some adult offenders, to ‘give victims a say’ in the way cases are dealt with.
But Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood, who has campaigned against police cuts, said: “I don’t think restorative justice has anything to do with it. It’s purely a lack of officers available to deal with these cases that is causing the problem.
“I previously made a public appeal to the Chief Constable, calling on him to admit the extent of the problem and heard nothing from that.
“I will now be writing a personal letter to him, calling on him to speak to the Government about the impact shortages are having.
“Police numbers are woefully low and the more people who stay out of the criminal justice system, the more crime will continue to rise.
“We’ve had gang killings, knifings, muggings, shootings, and we just don’t have sufficient officers to deal with them.”