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Crimes of Violence: Young Offenders

Volume 494: debated on Monday 15 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent assessment he has made of the effect of subsection 3 of section 91 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 on custodial sentencing for serious violent crimes committed by those aged under 21 years; and if he will make a statement. (278922)

Custody for young people under 18 is the last resort. Where a person under 18 has committed a very serious offence (generally one for which a person aged 21 years or over could be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 14 years or more), section 91 of the Powers of Criminal Court (Sentencing) Act 2000 enables the court to impose a term of detention not exceeding the maximum term of imprisonment that a person aged 21 or over could receive for the same offence. Before the court may decide to impose a sentence of detention under section 91, subsection 3 requires it to consider all other possible disposals, including a shorter period of custody under a detention and training order.

Data provided by the Youth Justice Board indicate that at the end of March 2009 there were 2,036 young people under 18 serving custodial sentences, including 349 serving a sentence imposed under section 91. Of those, 150 had received a section 91 sentence principally for an offence of violence against the person.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people aged under 18 years were convicted of (a) grievous bodily harm and (b) violent disorder in each year since 2000; and what the average length custodial sentence was in each case. (278924)

The number of persons aged 10 to 17 years who were found guilty at all courts for grievous bodily harm and violent disorder in England and Wales from 2000 to 2007 (latest available) is shown in table 1; with information on the average custodial sentence being in table 2.

These data are on the principal offence basis. The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

Court proceedings data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.

Table 1: Number of persons aged 10 to 17 years who were found guilty at all courts for offences relating to grievous bodily harm1 and violent disorder2, in England and Wales, 2000-073,4

Found guilty

Grievous bodily harm

Violent disorder

20005

901

173

2001

844

155

2002

904

182

2003

818

194

2004

884

211

2005

831

181

2006

820

143

2007

902

172

1 Grievous bodily harm includes the following statutes and offence descriptions:

Offences against the Person Act 1861 Sec 18.

Wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Offences against the Person Act 1861 Sec 29.

Causing explosion or casting corrosive fluids with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Offences against the Person Act 1861 Sec 20.

Malicious wounding: wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Offences against the Person Act 1861 Sec 20 as amended by Crime & Disorder Act 1998 Sec. 29(l)(a),(2).

Racially aggravated malicious wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Offences Against the Person Act 1861 S20 as amended by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 S29(l)(a) and (2).

Religiously aggravated malicious wounding of GBH

Offences Against the Person Act 1861 S20 as amended by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 S29(l)(a) 8i (2).

Racially or religiously aggravated malicious wounding or GBH

2 Violent disorder includes the following statute and offence description:

Public Order Act 1986 Sec 2.

Violent Disorder.

3 The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is Imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

4 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.

5 Staffordshire Police Force were only able to supply a sample of data for magistrates' courts proceedings covering one full week in each quarter for 2000.

Estimates based on this sample are included in the figures, as they are considered sufficiently robust at this high level of analysis.

Source:

OCJR - E and A: Office for Criminal Justice Reform - Evidence and Analysis Unit, Ministry of Justice

Table 2: Average custodial sentence length (months)1 for grievous bodily harm and violent disorder, offenders aged 10 to 17, 2000-07

GBH

Violent disorder

2000

18.0

7.6

2001

17.6

9.1

2002

18.7

9.5

2003

20.5

10.1

2004

21.1

8.8

2005

19.9

8.8

2006

19.7

10.5

2007

20.4

11.1

1 ACSL excludes life/indeterminate sentences

Source:

OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice.

These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.