Police arrest a child every two and a half minutes

News release

Monday 3 December 2012

Police in England and Wales arrest a child every two and a half minutes

A child was arrested every two and a half minutes in England and Wales last year, figures obtained by the Howard League for Penal Reform reveal today.

New research by the charity shows police made more than 206,000 arrests of boys and girls aged 17 and under during 2011. This number includes 2,117 arrests of children who were aged 10 or 11, meaning that on average six primary school children were arrested every day.

In total, more than one million child arrests have been made in England and Wales since 2008.

However, in a huge success for the Howard League’s campaign to reduce the number of child arrests, the figures represent a fall of a third since 2008, when more than 315,000 were recorded. Several police services have reviewed their arrest procedures and policies as a result of the charity’s engagement with them.

The campaign’s success and the way forward will be discussed at the Howard League’s Policing and Children Conference in Birmingham on Thursday 6 December 2012.

Ten police services have seen the number of arrests more than halve between 2008 and 2011. They are Dorset, Humberside, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, West Mercia, West Midlands, Gloucestershire, North Wales, Lancashire and Warwickshire.

Girls account for about a fifth of arrests each year, 207,808 between 2008 and 2011. However, 24,055 fewer girls were arrested in 2011 than in 2008 – a welcome fall of 38 per cent.

Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Children who get into trouble are more often than not just being challenging teenagers and how we respond to this nuisance behaviour could make a difference for the rest of their lives.  An arrest can blight a life and lead to a criminal record for just being naughty. The positive change in policing children will release resources to deal with real crimes.

Only a handful of children are involved in more serious incidents and they usually suffer from neglect, abuse or mental health issues.  A commitment to public safety means treating them as vulnerable children and making sure they get the help they need to mature into law-abiding citizens.

“Under the last government, police success was measured by the number of arrests and children proved a seductive way to make up the numbers. The fact that the number of child arrests has fallen by a third since 2008 is a testament to a change of culture, more focused on public safety than targets.”

Child arrest figures for England and Wales

2008: 315,923

2009: 279,667

2010: 240,760

2011: 206,902

Speakers at the Policing and Children Conference will include:

Jacqui Cheer QPM, Temporary Chief Constable of Cleveland Police

Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform

John Drew, Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board

Kate Green MP, Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System
David Hanson MP, Shadow Minister for Policing

Commander Christine Jones, Metropolitan Police

Paul McKeever, Chair of the Police Federation

Professor Jo Phoenix, Durham University

Drusilla Sharpling, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary

Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions

Notes to editors

1.    The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the UK. It is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.

2.    The Howard League for Penal Reform requested freedom of information data from all police services in England and Wales.

3.    The Policing and Children Conference is to be held at Aston Business School, Birmingham, B4 7ET, on Thursday 6 December 2012, from 9.30am until 4.30pm. Journalists are welcome to attend.

4.    Child arrest data for each police service in England and Wales is shown in the table below:

*Service unable to provide data

Contact

Rob Preece

Press Officer

Tel: +44 (0)20 7241 7880

Email: robert.preece@howardleague.org

ISDN line available on 020 7923 4196 - uses a G722 system

List of 2012 press releases