Further calls for early intervention to cut crime

Early intervention and building public confidence in the criminal justice system (CJS) are among recommendations laid out in a report released this week by the Home Affairs Select Committee.

The report, The Government’s Approach to Crime Prevention, says the Government must implement a more effective, long-term prevention strategy, tackling the children and parents most at risk of offending.

The Government programme Sure Start is identified as an area of good practice, but more work must be done to ensure that support accompanies the penalties that offenders receive, the report says.

Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) can reduce the likelihood of reoffending, but only 11 per cent of ASBOs handed down to under-18s in 2007 had an individual support order attached. The committee believes that more support can help further reduce the rate of reoffending.

It points out that a more proactive approach can save the Government, and taxpayer, money. Keeping a young person in the criminal justice system costs the taxpayer an average of £200,000 by the age of 16, while giving them the support they need to keep out of trouble costs less than £50,000. Despite this, the Youth Justice Board dedicates just seven per cent of funding to prevention.

The committee believes that while the Government should be taking measures to predict and pre-empt offenders and their likelihood of reoffending, it must not do this at the expense of reducing opportunities to commit crime.

The committee suggests that more sophisticated crime data analysis can enable the Government to spot and tackle emerging crime trends sooner, and says progress in this area has been too slow so far. The committee places emphasis on the concept of designing-out crime and recommends this practice should be encouraged among businesses to make offending harder or less appealing to criminals.

It adds that crime-prevention activity on the ground will be effective only if potential offenders believe there is a risk they will be caught and punished. A crucial element of this is public confidence, the committee says, and that there must be a consistent push by local agencies to drive home the Policing Pledge and increase the awareness of policing and sentencing activity.

Chair of the committee, Keith Vaz MP, said: “It may seem a bit of a truism now, but the fact is that when it comes to preventing crime, all the value for money comes from investing in communities – in social programmes, in activities and mentoring for young people, in health, in technology – rather than spending on the criminal justice system.

“This government has been tough on crime but not tough enough on the causes of crime. It is clear that prison, and especially short custodial sentences, do little or nothing to prevent offending or aid rehabilitation. And yet perhaps because of lack of investment, alternatives to custody are not yet working properly.

“Programmes such as Sure Start are particularly valuable and this type of programme should be extended to provide support further into childhood years. We are also far from maximising the valuable possibilities offered by technologies that can ‘design-out’ crime.

“It took some pressure on the car industry, but innovations that design-out opportunities for crime have contributed to a 65 per cent reduction in vehicle theft since 1995.

“Investing in removing the opportunity for committing a crime is so much more effective, so much better value, than dealing with the financial and social costs of a crime once it has been committed.”
Home Office minister David Hanson said: “Tackling youth crime and anti-social behaviour remains a priority and this report has acknowledged the effectiveness of parenting orders, family intervention projects and positive activities for young people.”