THE CHILDREN TRAPPED IN A LIFE OF CRIME FOUR IN TEN CHILD CRIMINALS REOFFEND WITHIN A YEAR
By ALICE CACHIA
MORE than four in ten children who commit crimes go on to reoffend within a year.
The proven reoffending rate for children currently stands at 42 per cent compared to just 29 per cent for adults, according to data from the Ministry of Justice.
A proven reoffender is anyone who has received some form of criminal justice sanction - such as a conviction or a caution - and goes on to commit another offence within a set period of time. In 2016/17, 16,184 children reoffended 61,629 times. This means each child who reoffended committed an average of four new offences. Some 11 per cent of all children who reoffended did so within one month. The highest proportion of children who reoffended had committed public order crimes, which is when people engage in deliberately violent and intimidatory behaviour.
Some 51 per cent of children who offend in this area go on to commit another crime within a year.
Children are also likely to reoffend after car crime. Some 43 per cent of children who had offended in this area went on to reoffend.
The figures reveal that children who had committed sexual offences are the least likely to commit further crimes, although 15 per cent do so within a year.
The number of times a child has offended before seems to influence reoffending rates. Those who have between one and two previous offences are nearly twice as likely to reoffend than those who have offended for the first time.
Some 42 per cent of children with one or two previous offences went on to reoffend, compared with 25 per cent of children who had none.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The number of children entering the youth justice system for the first time continues to decline year on year and we now have a concentrated mix of young people in custody – many of whom demonstrate very challenging and complex behaviour. “We are investing an additional £64m to improve youth custody, including boosting the number of frontline staff in public sector young offender institutions by 20% - all of whom will be specially trained to work in the youth estate.”