Youth Crime Comment
Prevention work reduces youth crime in Wiltshire and Swindon
WORK to cut youth offending in Wiltshire and Swindon has delivered improvements despite a report suggesting national targets are being missed.
Wiltshire and Swindon’s Youth Offending Services say their figures show two core aims set out by the Government to tackle youth crime are being met locally.
Their comments came after an audit of the Government’s youth justice reforms was conducted by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King's College, London.
The report says that despite substantial investment in radically restructuring and expanding the youth justice system, success has been far more mixed and ambiguous than the Government says.
The review looks at spending levels on youth justice and the performance against a range of key targets, including youth crime levels, first time entrants to the youth justice system, the time from arrest to sentence, the use of custody and re-offending rates.
Improvement data for Wiltshire and Swindon for first time entrants and re-offending paints a positive picture.
Ian Langley, head of Wiltshire Youth Offending Service, said: “There is strong evidence that the prevention work that has taken place over the past couple of years has had a significant effect on youth crime in Wiltshire.
“In the past three years we've seen a fall of nearly 40 per cent in the numbers of young people entering the youth justice system.”
Kevin Leaning, head of Swindon Youth Offending Service, said: “In Swindon, first-time entrants are also reduced, while the re-offending rate is significantly lower than the national average.
“This shows that Wiltshire is a safe place to live.”
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NOTES TO EDITORS
- The youth offending services in Wiltshire and Swindon are represented by chief officers on the Wiltshire Criminal Justice Board (WCJB).
- The WCJB was set up in April 2003 to manage the CJS at a local level. It, along with the other 41 Local Boards across England and Wales, reports to the National Criminal Justice Board which supports them in their work to meet Public Service Agreement targets at a local level and reduce crime in Wiltshire
- Wiltshire’s CJB comprises chief officers from the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, HM Courts Service, the Probation Service, the Prison Service and the Youth Offending Service.
- For further information please visit: http://lcjb.cjsonline.gov.uk/Wiltshire or call Chloe Boyce, WCJB Communications Officer, on 01225 781216.