Children and young people and the criminal justice system

Natalie Low; Shekera Rowe

Overview

In England and Wales, the youth justice system deals with children and young people (CYP) aged 10-17 who may have committed a crime, with 10 being the age of criminal responsibility (ACR).[1]

The pandemic saw falls in a number of crime-related measures for CYP, including offending rates, numbers of arrests, and numbers of children held in custody.[2] The youth justice system is now returning to pre-pandemic levels.[3] Government figures for 2022/23 showed that arrests of children increased for the second consecutive year in 2022/23 to around 59,000, 9% higher than the previous year, 2021/2022.[4] First-time entrants to the youth justice system increased for the first time in ten years, with 13,743 CYP people cautioned or sentenced in England and Wales.³ The biggest category (34%) of proven offences by CYP were violent offences, followed by 12% for motoring offences, and 8% each involving theft/handling, drugs or criminal damage.[5]

In 2022, as part of its work on youth offending, the UK Government committed to a £300 million funding package to reduce youth crime, and a £5 million fund for crime-cutting sports schemes.[6] The Ministry of Justice also introduced a youth early intervention programme, providing £56.5 million grant funding over a three-year period to Youth Offending Teams across England and Wales until March 2025.[7] In May 2024, the government launched the first secure school for serious offenders, part of a new approach to youth justice, to prioritise education and healthcare in the rehabilitation of serious young offenders.[8]

Research also highlights the overlap in children and young people between risks of harmful behaviour and victimisation.[9] Although most incidents may not come to the attention of the criminal justice system (CJS),[10] the 2023 British Crime Survey estimated that around 10% of children aged 10-15 had been a victim of crime over the last year.[11] A 2023 survey of 7,574 teenage children found that 16% of children had been victims of violence in the past 12 months.[12]

Challenges and opportunities

Factors associated with child and young offenders who encounter the CJS include lower levels of educational attainment, persistent absence during schooling, and vulnerability during childhood.[13] Research has also found that a disproportionate number of CYP who come into contact with the CJS are from minority ethnic group backgrounds, have grown up in care or disadvantaged families, and are often the victims of crime themselves.[14]^,[15]

There is debate about how effective and appropriate the CJS is in dealing with CYP,[16]^{,[17],[18],[19],[20],[21]} particularly in terms of reducing reoffending and improving outcomes for young people.[22] Research highlights the potential use of diversion schemes or therapeutic approaches for CYP who may come into contact with the CJS.[23]^,[24],[25] Diversion schemes offer alternative support at key points in the CJS (for example at arrest or prior to court action).[26] This can include mental health support, whole family interventions, mentoring or restorative justice (which involves communications between victims and offenders to collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of an offence and its future implications).²³^,²⁶^,[27]Government figures suggest a decline in the number of children given a caution or sentence in the CJS between 2013 and 2023, which it attributes to an increase in the use of diversionary outcomes.⁴

The government, and other sector stakeholders, also highlight the importance of early intervention and prevention in addressing youth crime.[28]^,[29] Researchers highlight the importance of cross-sector responses involving different types of interventions.[30] For example, the Youth Endowment Fund notes that therapies, social skills training, sports programmes, and focused deterrence can help prevent serious youth violence.[31]

As well as affecting CYP offending,[32] changes in technology and its use are affecting the risk and nature of victimisation and exploitation of CYP.[33]^,[34],[35] For example, in 2022/2023, the British Crime Survey found that around 10% of 13-15 year olds in England and Wales had received a sexual message, most often a photo or image.[36] There are widespread concerns about the internet’s role in facilitating child sexual abuse.[37] Sector stakeholders have also raised concerns about the potential for AI-generated child sexual abuse, where images of real children are manipulated to create new sexual imagery of them.[38]^,[39] The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced new requirements for online providers to protect CYP, for example, by removing illegal content relating to child sexual abuse, and preventing CYP users from accessing harmful content.[40]

There is limited information available about changes to child criminal exploitation occurring since the Covid-19 pandemic and current forms of exploitation.[41] Some research suggests increases in online sexual exploitation during the pandemic, for example, County Line gangs using explicit photos as part of their coercive methods to gain control over CYP, potentially for criminal or sexual exploitation.[42]^,[43] The Jay Review, a report commissioned by Action for Children (2024), made a number of recommendations to improve the response to child criminal exploitation and reduce the harm it causes, including more standardised data and information collection, and better collated evidence to understand exploitation and what works to address it.²¹

Key unknowns

There is limited information or robust evidence available on technology-driven changes to child exploitation,⁴¹ how these might develop in the future, what harms they cause young people, and what approaches are most effective at protecting those at risk.[44] For example, some stakeholders have noted the potential of AI-enabled crime using deepfakes, large language models and other generative AI applications to exploit CYP.[45]^,[46]

In April 2024, the government introduced a new clause on deepfake images within the Criminal Justice Bill, but this legislation was not passed in the 2023-24 session.[47]

In relation to the application of the youth justice system, policy experts have also suggested reviewing the ACR in England and Wales, which at 10 is lower than many other countries, including Scotland, which raised its ACR from eight to 12 from 2021.²³^{,[48],[49],[50]} However, any change to the ACR would also need to take into account victim perspectives (PN577). In 2021, the government stated it had no plans to review the ACR in England and Wales.[51]

Key questions for Parliament

How successful has recent government policy and funding on youth crime been in reducing reoffending and the harm caused by crime? How successful has it been for improving the outcomes for CYP involved in the CJS?
Is government funding for addressing youth crime adequate? How should funding be distributed across various methods of youth crime prevention?
What can the government, schools, youth services, online service providers, and other relevant stakeholders do to identify and mitigate the harms and risks of cyber-enabled and AI-enabled crime? What interventions are most effective?
How well is the Online Safety Act 2023 working to protect CYP online?

References

[1] Crown Prosecution Service. Youth crime

[2] Youth Justice Board (2022) Youth justice statistics: 2020 to 2021

[3] Youth Justice Board (2024). Youth justice statistics: we must collaborate

[4] Youth Justice Board (2024). Youth Justice Statistics: 2022 to 2023 (accessible version)

[5] Youth Justice Board (2024). Youth justice statistics: 2022 to 2023 Supplementary tables.

[6] Ministry of Justice (2022). New sports fund to tackle youth crime

[7] Ministry of Justice (2023). Turnaround Programme

[8] Ministry of Justice (2024). New Secure School to protect public and cut crime

[9] Gregory, L. (2014). Victimisation and Youth Justice – factsheet 23 Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice.

[10] Office for National Statistics (2020). Nature of crime tables: children aged 10 to 15 years

[11] Office for National Statistics (2023). Crime in England and Wales: Annual Trend and Demographic Tables

[12] Youth Endowment Fund (2023). Children, Violence and Vulnerability 2023

[13] Office for National Statistics (2022). The education and social care background of young people who interact with the criminal justice system: May 2022

[14] Ministry of Justice (2016). Review of the Youth Justice System in England and Wales

[15] McAra, L., & McVie, S. (2010). Youth Crime and Justice: Key Messages from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime”, Criminology and Justice, Vol 10 No 2, p179-209

[16] Creaney, S. (2012). Targeting, labelling and stigma: challenging the criminalisation of children and young people. Centre for Crime and Justice Studies

[17] West Midlands Combined Authority (2021). Evidence shows too many young people in the criminal justice system suffer from violence, poverty, and abuse growing up

[18] Goldson, B. & Muncie, J. (2015). ‘Children’s human rights and youth justice with integrity’, in Goldson, B. & Muncie, J. (eds) Youth Crime and Justice, 2nd edition. London, Sage: 227-257 in POST, Age of Criminal Responsibility, POSTnote 577

[19] Department for Education (2017). Children accommodated in secure children’s homes at 31 March 2017: England and Wales

[20] Children’s Commissioner (2023). Strip search of children in England and Wales

[21] Action for Children (2024). Shattered_Lives_Stolen_Futures. The Jay Review of Criminally Exploited Children

[22] Goldson, B. (2013). Unsafe, unjust and harmful to wider society: grounds for raising the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales. Youth Justice, Vol No 2, p111-130 in POST, Age of Criminal Responsibility, POSTnote 577

[23] Lucas, P.J. and Staines, J. (2022). Supporting the youngest children in the youth justice system: what works to reduce offending and improve outcomes? Local Government Association

[24] Keenan, C. et al. (2023). An evidence review on youth diversion programmes. National Children’s Bureau

[25] College of Policing. Police-initiated diversion for young people

[26] Youth Endowment Fund. Another chance – Diversion from the criminal justice system

[27] Crown Prosecution Service. Restorative Justice

[28] Home Office (2021). Beating crime plan – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Gov.uk

[29] National Institute for Health and Care Research (2024). 24/29 The health of children and young people in contact with the criminal justice system

[30] Jang, Y. & Ko, B. (2023). Online Safety for Children and Youth under the 4Cs Framework—A Focus on Digital Policies in Australia, Canada, and the UK, Children, Vol 10 No 8

[31] Youth Endowment Fund (2024). The YEF Toolkit – what works to prevent youth violence

[32] National Crime Agency (2024). One in five children found to engage in illegal activity online

[33] Children’s Commissioner (2022). Briefing to MPs on the Online Safety Bill

[34] Davidson OBE, J. et al. (2022). CC-DRIVER 2021 European Youth Survey