Information from the Cautions database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of juveniles aged 10 to 17 cautioned by the police for all offences in England and Wales from 1997-2005, broken down by age, are provided in the following tables. Both cautions and convictions have increased since 1997.
Age 1997 7998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 10 2,052 2,297 2,207 2,061 1,979 1,611 1,650 1,719 2,095 11 4,283 4,775 4,599 4,484 4,422 3,537 3,559 3,847 4,536 12 7,744 8,807 8,278 8,247 8,182 6,878 6,990 8,004 9,235 13 12,219 13,746 13,244 12,713 13,296 10,862 11,353 13,356 15,597 14 17,383 17,979 17,662 17,529 17,473 15,227 15,908 18,984 22,397 15 19,737 20,896 19,788 19,267 19,567 17,005 18,732 21 ,663 24,826 16 20,404 20,583 19,008 17,505 17,920 16,313 17,714 20,346 22,149 17 20,698 20,642 19,192 15,735 15,203 15,156 16,027 17,089 18,040 Total 104,520 109,725 103,978 97,541 98,042 86,589 91,933 105,008 118,875 1 These data are provided on the principal offence basis. 2 From 1 June 2000 the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force nationally and removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and final warnings. These figures have been included in the totals. 3 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 4 Offenders aged under 10 cannot be cautioned for an offence.
Found guilty Cautioned2 Male Female Total Male Female Total 1997 69,697 9,454 79,151 80,866 23,654 104,520 1998 75,701 10,805 86,506 82,441 27,284 109,725 1999 79,389 10,891 90,280 78,478 25,500 103,978 2000 80,513 10,910 91,423 72,089 25,452 97,541 2001 84,128 11,402 95,530 72,070 25,972 98,042 2002 83,181 11,365 94,546 63,554 23,034 86,588 2003 80,849 11,692 92,541 66,910 25,023 91,933 2004 83,413 12,775 96,188 74,476 30,532 105,008 2005 82,431 13,726 96,157 83,199 35,676 118,875 1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 2 From 1 June 2000 Cautions for 10 to 17-year-olds were replaced by reprimands and final warnings under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Note: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the police forces and courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform