THE Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire Police Philip Seccombe has praised the county’s Youth Justice Service for its work reducing re-offending among young people and for substantial reductions in first-time offenders entering the criminal justice system.
End of year performance figures for 2018/19 show that on three key performance indicators, Warwickshire is outperforming national and regional rates.
The number of first-time entrants into the Youth Justice system in Warwickshire has declined by 31.2 per cent in 2018/19 compared to the previous year, continuing a downward trend which had already seen figures reduced by 30.94 per cent over the previous recording period.
Philip Seccombe
In Warwickshire, a young person re-offends in 27.3 per cent of cases, compared with 36.1 per cent in the West Midlands and a national rate of 39.9 per cent.
The frequency of re-offences has fallen by 44.3 per cent compared with West Midlands reduction rate of 16.8 per cent.
The number of young people from Warwickshire in custody is extremely low, with just five custodial sentences imposed on four children during 2018/19.
The county’s custody rate per 1000 children aged under 17 years is 0.06 per cent, compared with a West Midlands rate of 0.36 per cent, ‘family group’ rate of 0.20 per cent and a national rate of 0.31 per cent.
Mr Seccombe said: “There has been a real push to ensure children and young people are diverted away from crime, so it’s really encouraging to see these latest performance figures in which Warwickshire is leading the way both regionally and nationally.”
