Crime and anti-social behaviour have a significant negative impact on individuals and communities - including the victims, the relatives of offenders, and the offenders themselves - as well as a significant financial cost to society. For example, reoffending costs society approximately £18 billion per year.
It is important to become aware of children who are becoming (or at risk of) involved in crime and anti-social behaviour at the earliest opportunity to support them and their families. The reasons for children becoming involved in crime are multi-faceted and complex. On the one hand children are more prone to impulsivity and risk taking that can influence one-off poor decisions that lead to criminal behaviour, which with the right support is unlikely to be repeated. For other children, they may have experienced significant and prolonged adverse childhood experiences and trauma, which if left unaddressed, may lead to a number of overlapping safeguarding needs, with offending being one that can become more persistent.
Consideration also needs to be given to adults who are involved in crime and anti-social behaviour and are poor role models. This reflects the evidence that parental anti-social or criminal behaviour is a significant factor in contributing to child offending. Furthermore, adults involved in criminality can seek to exploit children sexually or criminally and this needs to be understood and addressed through a safeguarding lens.
It is always important to tackle the underling factors contributing to children’s offending – trauma, poor mental health, bereavement and loss, family dynamics, school exclusion, unemployment, insecure accommodation, substance misuse, exploitation etc. It is also always important to identify and build on children’s strengths when planning to promote positive change, this is referred to as supporting ‘desistance’. Desistance is the process of abstaining from crime amongst those who previously had engaged in a sustained pattern of offending.
The following resources will provide guidance in relation to “crime prevention and tackling crime”:
- Desistance and young people - Exploring the effectiveness of practice in Youth Offending Teams across eight domains which desistance research has highlighted as being significant in supporting children and young people’s journeys away from offending
- Youth justice in the UK (external link) - Free online course exploring topical issues surrounding young people and crime, such as how rates of victimisation and offending vary, with particular reference to the ways age, gender, race and social class shape young people’s experience of crime
- Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (external link) - Research and practice guidance in relation to youth services.
There are a number of organisations that can support children and families with crime prevention and tackling crime: