It applies to crimes such as shoplifting and graffiti and aims to stop criminalising young people for low grade crime. It the pilot is successful, Government will look to expand the approach.
The Youth Crime Action Plan is a cross-government analysis of what needs to be done to tackle youth crime. It has adopted a triple approach to tackling youth crime, which includes the better an earlier prevention, tough enforcement and active support of families.
Each year around 100,000 young people aged 10 -17 enter the criminal justice system for the first time. The new Action Plan aims to reduce this rate by one fifth by 2020.
The £100 million Youth Crime Action Plan sets out a comprehensive package of tough enforcement and intensive prevention measures as well as more support for parents to tackle offending and reduce re-offending. The range of measures announced today includes:
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “Youth Crime can have a devastating effect on victims and communities and must be tackled head-on.
“Today I want to send the message to perpetrators that their actions are unacceptable. They must understand the consequences their behaviour has not only on victims and communities but on their families and their futures.
“I want to call on parents to play their part. Tough enforcement and policing is only one part of the solution. The new action we are launching today gives equal weight to the triple-track approach of intensive prevention, tough enforcement and support for parents.”
