Pubdate: Fri, 22 Mar 2002
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent, The Guardian
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

TARGETING THE AFTER-SCHOOL CRIMINALS

The new police standards unit at the Home Office is to urge police to make 
greater efforts to intervene against youth offenders who commit crimes 
immediately after school ends, and in streets surrounding schools. The 
move, designed to tackle the worst youth crime hot spots, follows research 
from the Metropolitan Police showing a large proportion of youth crime is 
committed in late afternoon after school ends.

The Home Office would like to see a greater police prescence outside the 
gates of problem schools. Metropolitan police figures show that 30% of 
offences committed by youths in 2000 took place between 3pm and 6pm. There 
is no evidence of increased offending during school holidays.

The most prevalent offences were shoplifting (17%), criminal damage valued 
at between UKP20-UKP5,000 (9.6%), possession of cannabis (8.9%), robbery of 
personal property (10%), unauthorised taking of motor vehicle (8.3%) and 
burglary (5.1%). Sixty-three per cent of the youth offences in the Met were 
committed by 15- or 16-year-olds.

Ministers want a big improvement in the quality of data to help police to 
tackle youth crime hot spots.

They have also been studying emerging findings from Her Majesty's 
Inspectorate of Constabulary, which has warned that the police are 
suffering from a "dearth of analysis that helps identify what works and why".

The report admits that the Home Office and the police service have 
struggled to develop a mechanism for measuring a clear relationship between 
money put into the service, police methods, and the outcome in terms of crime.

It says: "The arguments put forward by chief officers and police 
authorities for more resources ... are undermined by an inabilty to state 
with sufficient precision what quantifiable benefits will flow from these 
resources."
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