"Today's report recognizes that key measures of youth
crime, such as the number of young people entering the youth
justice system, and the volume of reoffending by young offenders,
show real improvement. However, young people receiving more serious
community sentences and custodial sentences are just as likely to
reoffend today as they were in 2000. More should be done to find
out which interventions are the most effective in dealing with
offending behaviour so that, in future, money can be directed at
what works."
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, 10
December 2010
The National Audit Office has reported today that recent
improvements to the youth justice system have contributed to
reductions in recorded youth crime. However, despite a 25 per cent
reduction in the volumes of reoffending, young offenders who
receive more serious community sentences or custodial sentences
remain as likely to offend again as they were ten years ago when
the youth justice system was brought in.
The NAO estimates that, in 2009, offending by all young people
cost the economy between £8.5 billion and £11 billion.
The current number of first-time entrants is the lowest since
comparable records began in 2001. The number of young people held
in custody has reduced by 14 per cent over the past five years, at
a time when the adult prison population grew by 14 per cent. And
the proportion of all young offenders who reoffend fell from 40 per
cent in 2000 to 37 per cent in 2008, with the volume of their
reoffending dropping by 25 per cent.
However, the rates of reoffending for those who receive most of
the youth justice system's resources are much less encouraging. The
proportion of young offenders receiving more serious community
sentences who go on to reoffend has gone up since 2000. Although
the number of offences committed by these young people has reduced,
this suggests that reform remains particularly difficult with the
most challenging offenders.
Recent reforms to the system should help ensure that resources
are directed at offenders most at risk of reoffending, and
prevention programmes have taken pragmatic approaches based on the
available evidence.
Some three-quarters of Youth Offending Team managers agreed that
it is difficult to find evidence of what works for certain areas of
their work. With resources likely to reduce, the youth justice
system is therefore in a weak position to know which activities to
cut and which to keep to ensure that outcomes do not
deteriorate.
Publication details:
HC: 663, 2010-2011
ISBN: 9780102965599