• Responding to youth crime & anti-social behaviour findings
Engaging with the views of young people with experience of the youth justice system

  • The young people we spoke to had experienced fractured and difficult home lives, and close proximity to crime. Those who had engaged in crime or anti-social behaviour felt that they had few employment or education opportunities.

  • Young people reported feeling unfairly labelled by adults as engaging in crime or anti-social behaviour, when in fact they were acting as a ‘normal’ young person would, such as being on the street with friends. This led to them feeling alienated from adults.

  • ‘Stop and Searches’ are not popular and the practice is felt to discriminate against young people.

  • Victims of crime or witnesses of crime expressed concern about attending court at the same time as the offender in a case. This may result in them deciding not to attend court.

  • Young people said that custodial sentences could act as a deterrent to crime, but these sentences might also embed young people in social networks and environments where crime is normalised.

  • Restorative forms of justice were favoured by young people throughout the research. This included offenders mending buildings they had damaged and paying damages so that victims could replace stolen property. It was felt this would give offenders the chance to consider the impact of their actions.

  • Key recommendations to emerge from these findings were that:

  • Victims or witnesses should be able to give evidence with out having to face the accused offender in court. This could be achieved by alternative means such as video link, or by victims and witnesses attending court on a different day or at a different location.

  • Specialist training should be given to police officers to help them work with young people. This training could be developed, informed or delivered by young people.

      • Young people, particularly those who are ex-offenders, could be employed to support other young offenders. It was felt that these young mentors would be best placed to understand what ex-offenders were going through and that ex-offenders would respect and listen to them.
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