Figures showing the number of under 18-year-old prisoners under immediate custodial sentence held in all prison establishments in England and Wales by gender and offence type between 1997 and 2006 can be found in the following table. Information on the age of prisoners at first admission is not available.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Number of persons 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Under 18s Males and Females — — — — — — — — — — Immediate Custodial Sentence 1,673 1,689 1,710 1,860 1,976 2,088 1,781 1,763 1,835 1,865 Violence against the person 231 241 267 288 358 363 320 341 389 391 Sexual offences 40 47 48 59 52 58 42 55 65 68 Robbery 443 475 425 409 439 522 456 456 438 503 Burglary 452 434 454 468 391 405 290 248 289 282 Theft and handling 181 202 219 310 325 319 299 277 233 192 Fraud and forgery 0 4 6 6 5 5 2 7 11 11 Drug offences2 — — — — 49 51 49 57 79 71 Motoring offences2 — — — — — 84 123 94 58 69 Other offences 191 179 230 280 293 203 155 203 257 265 Offence not recorded 135 107 61 39 64 78 44 27 18 13 Males Immediate Custodial Sentence 1,620 1,627 1,643 1,791 1,911 1,986 1,724 1,706 1,780 1,814 Violence against the person 213 230 250 264 339 336 310 326 366 381 Sexual offences 40 46 48 59 52 58 42 55 65 67 Robbery 425 451 410 396 429 503 436 449 422 486 Burglary 447 428 447 458 382 396 289 242 285 275 Theft and handling 178 196 208 303 313 299 290 268 230 189 Fraud and forgery 0 4 6 6 5 3 1 4 10 11 Drug offences2 — — — — 46 43 43 51 76 68 Motoring offences2 — — — — — 84 122 92 58 69 Other offences 182 168 215 268 284 191 149 194 252 258 Offence not recorded 135 104 59 37 61 72 42 25 18 12 Females Immediate Custodial Sentence 53 62 67 69 65 102 57 58 55 50 Violence against the person 18 11 17 24 19 27 10 15 23 11 Sexual offences 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Robbery 18 24 15 13 10 19 21 8 16 17 Burglary 5 6 7 10 9 9 1 6 4 7 Theft and handling 3 6 11 7 12 20 9 9 3 3 Fraud and forgery 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 1 0 Drug offences2 — — — — 3 8 6 6 3 4 Motoring offences2 — — — — — 0 1 2 0 0 Other offences 9 11 15 12 9 12 6 9 5 8 Offence not recorded 0 3 2 2 3 6 2 2 0 1 1 Excludes police cells. 2 Drug Offences from 1997 to 2000 and Motoring Offences from 1997 to 2001 are included in the Other Offences category. Data Sources and Quality These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and so although shown to the last individual, the figures may not be accurate to that level. This table taken from table 8.21 in Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2002-06 and table 3.3 Prison statistics in England and Wales 1997 - 2001