Keynote Speech - Inner London Youth Conference
12 March 2009 The Rt Hon the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC
Attorney General
Introduction
I would first like to thank you all for inviting me to make a key note speech today. As some of you may know I am passionate about young people and all that we need to do to improve the lives of our young people in London.
The problems that we face
Young people are our greatest assets. They are the future of UK plc and I firmly believe that we should invest in them. The sad fact is that our society portrays them in a way where they are perceived as our greatest assets but sometimes as our greatest burden. Surveys have shown that interestingly and worryingly adults think that 47% of all crimes are committed by young people when the reality is between 10% and 20%.
We know that most young people just want to get on with growing up. They don't get involved in crime. It is important during today's discussions that we remember that, and we do not simply concentrate on the few who go wrong. Otherwise we risk pushing more and more young people into believing that they are a problem just because they are young.
Yet this conference recognises that there is still more for us to do and achieve. Even though total crime has fallen by 42% since the mid 1990s, with a substantial fall in violent crime, the number of young people killed (using knives and other means) has increased year on year. In 2008 there were 28 teenage victims in 2007 there were 27.
While teenage homicide is by no means unique to large cities within the UK, it does appear to be more prevalent in London. There were 32 teenage murders in the UK between January and July 2008, 18 of which were in London, 56% of the British total. This is disproportionately high when considering London only accounts for 11% of the UK teenage population.
Further ethnic disproportionately is most evident amongst teenage homicide victims. Of the 27 teenage murder victims in London in 2007, 22 were identified as being Afro-Caribbean. During 2008, 25 of the 30 victims were BME (83%). For comparison, 44% of murder victims over 19 years of age were BME in origin.
This conference recognises that youth crime is not uniform - differences do exists between cities. The solution of one size fits all does not apply to what is a complex a challenging issue. It is important to discuss London centric issues of tackling crime hotspots, knife, gun crimes and prevalent offending and to look together at the strategies and proposals for the near future of tackling these issues amongst young people.
Our successes to date
Whilst recognising the scale of the challenge I would like us to pause and reflect on the successes
that we have achieved to date in tackling youth crime. One such success has been Persistent Young Offenders Pledge ("the pledge"). It has been an excellent catalyst in bringing criminal justice agencies together to ensure that persistent young offenders are dealt with expeditiously.
The pledge has succeeded in demonstrating to persistent young offenders that their behaviour has consequences and those consequences follow quickly.
As a result of the pledge we have halved the average time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders from 142 days in 1997 to 58 days in April 2008. We should acknowledge our
successes. We are not impotent and should build on the changes that have been made.
We are now building on this success and concentrating on the highest risk youth offenders. We do not want to wait until a young offender receives multiple convictions before deciding they are priority. By acting earlier we will reduce crime and the impact that the offending behaviour has on communities.
Another success that sets out the way forward is the Youth Crime Action Plan. It is a cross governmental plan for dealing with a full range of issues around youth crime from enforcement to better targeted support to early intervention. It will deliver an extensive and comprehensive package of measures for children, young people and families which will be backed by £100 million worth of extra funding over the next three years to prevent young people from getting involved in crime. Because we have successfully sold the idea of early intervention we can see that a 'stitch in time' has indeed saved nine.
This Plan about reducing crime and the number of people who become victim of crimes. Our ultimate aim is to keep young people and communities safe by preventing crime and reducing re-offending.
This is achieved by focusing on three key areas:
oThe first is tough enforcement where behaviour is unacceptable or illegal.
oThe second is more non-negotiable support to address the underlying causes of poor behaviour, including more parenting orders and the new Youth Referral Order requiring young people to for example attend education, or go to an attendance centre for group work, or undertake treatment for drug and substance abuse.
oEarly intervention to tackle problems before they become serious or entrenched.
The Action Plan builds on existing investment to support children, young people and families which have been proven to work such as the Family Intervention Projects (FIPS). I am a particular fan of Family Intervention Projects because they have been shown to work. They help parents and
families who can do most to support young people and set them on the right track.
The data we now have under FIPs shows how successful they have been; we have for example:
oHalved the proportion of families reported to exhibit poor parenting (60 % to 32%)
oHalved the number of families facing one or more enforcement action (eg, ABCs, pre court juvenile specific orders such as verbal reprimand and final warning) (45% to 23 %). We're talking about anti-social behaviour contracts, verbal reprimands and how successful they have been.
As before, we are making a lot of progress but there is more to do.
Young people as victims
So far we have focused on the small proportion of young people who are offenders. Perhaps more important to recognise is that young people are victims of crime. The Offending Crime and Justice Survey (OCJS) 2006 reported that young people (and in particular 10 -15 year olds) are more likely to have been victims of crime and less likely to report a crime. Those who were 10 -15 were likely to know their perpetrators, who were likely to be other pupils or friends. The survey showed that only 4 % of thefts from young people had come to the attention of the police.
Half of all offenders (50%) (who have committed an offence in the previous 12 months) are themselves victims of crime compared to 19% of those who have not committed any offence at all (OCJS 2005).
Young people may react to having their belongings stolen or being attacked by stealing someone else's belongings or attacking someone else. Young people frequently tell us that they carry knives to protect themselves because they are scared.
This means we have much to do to encourage vulnerable young witnesses to report crimes, support them as vulnerable witnesses and build their confidence in the criminal justice system. We
have made some significant improvements in that regard.
Since the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 a number of major advances have been made to help young vulnerable witnesses give the best evidence with a range of special measures consisting of for example video recording evidence in chief, and giving evidence with the assistance of an intermediary.
The recent publication of the Government Response to the Improving the Criminal Trial Process for Young Witnesses Consultation Plans aims to give young, vulnerable witnesses better support and encourage more witnesses to come forward with evidence of crimes. These plans recognise that all young people are different and must be treated as such.
It does not stop there. There are a number of responses that the London Criminal Justice Board's Youth Justice Strategy has adopted to address these challenges. I will not mention them all here but I will highlight two of them as examples.
The first such response is Triage. This is being piloted at the London Boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich.
Triage takes place at the point that a young person enters police custody following arrest. Its aim is to act as a 'gateway' whereby all young people entering custody can be rapidly assessed to ensure that they are dealt with swiftly and effectively.
Where appropriate, triage will fast track young people committing more serious offences into the CJS. It provides a new option of early diversion for young offenders involved in low level criminality which can free up court time to free up court time to focus on more persistent and serious offenders.
In the autumn of this year an evaluation report on the pilots is expected to be published. This will
inform wider roll out. I'm very hopeful that the outcome of triaging will be as successful as FIPs.
The second LCJB response is to counter increased gang related youth violence. The Metropolitan Police and its partners are developing the Pathways Programme. This is a multi-agency, community led, programme focused on disrupting the group dynamics that promote violence.
Under this Programme clear messages of support (if an exit from a gang lifestyle is requested) and deterrence (if violence continues) are delivered to the key influencers of violence as identified by intelligence sources.
The Pathway Programme will be tested in 3 London boroughs - Lambeth, Southwark and Croydon with an evaluation programme in place. Learning from the pilots will again inform wider roll out.
The AG's Youth Network
In today discussions we should remember that most young people want to achieve positive lives. And with the right opportunities and support, they will. The challenge for us is to harness that desire and match it with our commitment to providing the right opportunities and support for these young people.
We need to involve young people themselves in the solution. They too are experts in youth issues and have a stake in trying to address these issues.
It is with this belief in mind that I will be setting up the Attorney General's Youth Network to bring together groups and individuals who are committed to making a difference in the outcomes which we produce for our young people, and which young people can produce for themselves.
The Youth Network will build on the principles which my office has so successfully embedded in co-ordinating Pro Bono legal activity in recent years and will draw together existing and new partnerships. My particular aims for the Network are that it will contribute to and compliment existing youth-focussed work across Government, linking to the Every Child Matters principles of Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, and Make a Positive Contribution.
This Network is not about creating new policies; it is about recognising and strengthening existing work which is going on in various forms across all sectors, including charities and private companies through their corporate social responsibility activities. It is not about seeking to reinvent the wheel when it is already turning, but we are helping it to turn better.
The Youth Network will provide a forum where best practice and ideas can be shared, creative and strategic partnerships can be formed, and new approaches explored. I have been warmed by the number of people who want to be involved with this.
In my role as Guardian of the Public Interest I will provide co-ordination and support, but it is intended that the Network will be much like my Pro Bono Committee and will be largely self-driven, defining its own direction and priorities. Importantly, it is hope that this Network will include representatives of young people themselves, to ensure that its output is genuinely responsive to young people's needs
Conclusion
Although a lot has been achieved there is still scope to do. This is even more challenging in today's global economic climate. But such challenges are not insurmountable. It is important that when we discuss strategies' and proposals of tackling youth crime in London we build upon the experiences of existing programmes as well as our own experiences both as professionals and as members of the community.
By bringing together all the interested parties in tackling youth crime and working together in partnership, we can successfully tackle the challenges that youth crime poses to the young people, the community and to UK PLC.
I think we have started to find the essential tools to make this happen - the question is how we can apply these tools to enable us to work together.
The passion to help our youth hasn't ebbed, in fact it continues to grow. So it's important we stick together.
It's about the old Obama line (which we had first) - 'together we can'!!