Experimental statistics on children and crime
Nick Herbert says figures released today including experiences of victimised children will help give a fuller picture of crime in the UK.
On the day a consultation was launched into classifying youth crime, Nick Herbert has welcomed efforts to create a fuller picture of people鈥檚 experiences.
Experimental figures, released today, reflect the experiences of victimised children aged 10 to 15 for the first time. Four different approaches to classifying the information are offered, which stakeholders are being invited to comment on.
Responding to 鈥楨xperimental statistics on victimisation of children aged 10 to 15: Findings from the British Crime Survey,鈥� the minister for policing and criminal justice said:
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鈥樆使谔逵齛ppse new figures reinforce our longstanding belief that to date, crime measures have offered either a partial or confused picture about the level of offending.
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鈥楬owever, when you look at these statistics, they reveal what people know only too well - that crime affecting young people is a serious problem which must be tackled.
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鈥榃e need a common sense approach that recognises young people鈥檚 experiences so that we don鈥檛 criminalise children by failing to properly distinguish between playground spats and serious crime.
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鈥樆使谔逵齛pp public must have full and trusted information if we are to restore confidence in the statistics and drive effective action to tackle crime. We are currently considering how crime statistics should be collected and published in future, and will work with the UK Statistics Authority to consider this carefully.鈥�
