A LIFE AWAY

FROM CRIME
A New Approach to Youth Justice

Proposals from the Liberal Democrat

Justice & Home Affairs Team

Liberal Democrats, 4 Cowley Street, London SW1P 3NB

APPLICABILITY & COSTINGS

With the devolution of powers to Scotland and Wales, many decisions

made in Westminster now apply to England only. That means that
policies in those nations are increasingly different from those in England
– reflecting different choices, priorities and circumstances. The
proposals set out in this document are our vision for what a Liberal
Democrat government in Westminster could achieve in the area of youth
justice.

Some proposals published by the Liberal Democrats imply modifications

to existing government public expenditure priorities. We recognise that it
may not be possible to achieve all these proposals in the lifetime of one
Parliament. We intend to publish a costed manifesto, setting out our
priorities across all policy areas, at the next general election.

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FOREWORD
CHRIS HUHNE MP
Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary
The last ten years in the field of youth justice under Labour has been a
disaster. According to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, the extra
millions spent on the youth justice system have been squandered with little in
the way of results.1

Labour‘s approach has criminalised a generation of young people. More and

more of our kids are being dragged into the criminal justice system for minor
offences and are getting a criminal record. Since the ‘offences brought to
justice’ targets were introduced in 2002, the number of children being pushed
into the criminal justice system has risen by over a quarter, two-and-a-half
times faster than adults.2 It is not working. Youth crime and re-offending rates
have remained high. Labour’s approach is a criminal creation scheme, when
what we need is an effective system of preventing young people from getting
involved in crime in the first place.

Britain has the lowest age of criminal responsibility in Europe and the highest
rate of youth incarceration.3 Over 3,000 young people are now locked up in
Britain and between 1995 and 2005 there was an 86% rise in the number of 15
to 17 year olds in custody. Yet three quarters of children who go through our
penal system just get out and commit more crime. Putting children through the
formal criminal justice system at an early age, often for minor offences, just
increases the likelihood of them becoming more serious offenders in later life.

Effective and firm policies to deal with serious offenders are right, but Labour’s
criminalisation of our children has gone hand in hand with the demonisation of
a whole generation by some politicians and sections of the media. Rod
Morgan, the former Chairman of the Youth Justice Board, described this as the
‘mark of Cain’.4 This has got to stop.

Both the Government and the Conservatives have tried to exploit this politics
of fear. Issues of youth crime and anti-social behaviour have been used as a
political tactic, but all the ‘tough’ measures have failed to make any real
impact. Labour’s latest initiative, the Youth Crime Action Plan was just a mish-
mash of gimmicks and previously announced measures. The Casey Review of
the criminal justice system, headed by the architect of the failed ASBOs
scheme, suggested that public humiliation was the way to restore confidence
in the youth justice system. Labour can’t come up with any new ideas, so it
continues to pursue the policies that created the problems in the first place.

This paper sets out the twin strategy of preventing crime by young people and
effective solutions for dealing with young offenders.

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Part one – Preventing Criminality – sets out proposals for engaging young
people and providing activities that will divert them from crime. Diversionary
activities are not just about giving kids something to do, they are also about
giving them skills they can use in later life, helping them to contribute to a
stronger civil society. For instance, the creation of a Youth Volunteer Force for
every area, with young people working with local authorities on projects that
serve the community.

Part two - A New Approach to Youth Justice - sets out effective policies to
intervene firmly with the tiny minority of serious offenders, while ensuring that
minor offenders who look to be heading for more serious trouble are put on the
right path. This means nipping bad behaviour in the bud through innovative
solutions that work and engaging young people.

There will always be a small minority of young people who commit crime. With
well established policies such as Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, using
restorative justice and effective community punishments, we can forge a
victim-led youth justice system, that intervenes early and makes offenders face
up to their behaviour.

The key to tackling tomorrow’s potential offenders is to target them early,

before they enter the criminal justice system. Community Justice Panels
should be established to draw up Positive Behaviour Orders (PBOs), which
require minor offenders to agree on a course of action to pay back the
community they have wronged. Unlike purely punitive measures like ASBOs,
which have been proven not to work, PBOs force offenders to face the
consequences of their bad behaviour and agree to a positive solution to make
amends for the damage they have caused.

In an attempt to deal with a few bad apples, the Labour Government has
pursued policies that spoil the entire barrel. Not only have ministers failed to
deal with the worst offenders, they have created criminals out of some of the
others. Labour, despite all the money spent, can’t change its approach to
youth justice. The Conservatives won’t. Their only response seems to be to
talk tougher, a solution that has been proven not to work. David Cameron
announces plans to lock up everyone caught carrying a knife without any
conception of how much it would cost or of the knock-on effects for youth
justice.

The Liberal Democrats are the only party who can make a new approach to
youth justice happen. The Liberal Democrats believe it is time to chart a
different course. It is time to stop criminalising our children. It is time to make
work for idle hands. It is time to put early intervention and victims at the heart
of youth justice.

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PART ONE
PREVENTING CRIMINALITY
CREATING A YOUTH VOLUNTEER FORCE
Diversionary activities are one of the most important factors in stopping
vulnerable young people from embarking on a life of crime. The creation of a
Youth Volunteer Force is about making engagement with the community more
attractive to young people, including those in the most disenfranchised and at
risk groups. Activities must be appealing but they can also teach the youth of
today skills for tomorrow. We would:

• Pilot the creation of a Youth Volunteer Force in areas with crime problems
and large numbers of disaffected young people. Local authorities could bid for
the right to pilot the scheme in their region.
• Encourage local services to become involved with the local Youth Volunteer
Force to give them the skills they need to contribute to a stronger civil society.
These should include public services (e.g. the police, the Territorial Army, the
fire brigade etc) but also local businesses (e.g. mechanics, caterers,
electricians etc).
• Emphasise the benefits of inter-generational working in the Youth Volunteer
Force. Many older people are fearful of young people but working with them
can help to reduce that fear and nurture respect for their elders among young
people.
• Charge councils with the creation of target lists of projects that would benefit
the area, which the Youth Volunteer Force could become involved with. Good
examples of projects that would appeal to young people are the restoration of
sporting or other recreational facilities or regeneration and other
environmental schemes.
• Create an award scheme as part of running the Youth Volunteer Force, to
reward outstanding commitment and performance. As with the Duke of
Edinburgh Awards, this would be recognised by employers as a significant
achievement away from traditional academic testing.

INCREASING ACTIVITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

The Labour Government spends 11 times more on locking up our young
people than it does on backing projects to stop them getting involved in crime
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in the first place. The Government’s emphasis on criminalising large numbers
of young people has overwhelmed the youth justice system. Increasing
diversionary activities would substantially decrease the need for spending on
criminal justice. We would:

• Charge councils with drawing up Youth Community Plans for more youth
activities, particularly in deprived areas. Plans should audit community spaces
and consult local people.
• Funding for out of school activities for all young people should be merged into
one easy-to-access fund.
• Give young people a say over where the money should go through local youth
councils – possibly with their own budgets – and the Youth Parliament.

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• Promote regular sport, drama or arts-based activities that bring skills,
experience with authority figures and constructive activity.

PROTECTING CHILDREN’S PLAY AREAS

Having places in the community for young people to play sport and to let off
steam is an important part of a diversionary strategy. Under both Labour and
Conservative governments, playing fields and play areas have been sold off at
an astonishing rate for short-term financial gain. They are still being lost at a
rate of one a week. It is time to ensure young people have more chances to
exercise and play sport. We would:

• Ensure that funds that have been promised for sport and children’s play
facilities are actually spent. The Government has promised three times since
2001 to deliver £200 million for children’s play facilities, yet only £16 million
has so far been spent.
• SportEngland pledged £1.1 billion for community sport through their
Community Projects Capital Fund in 1999. Latest figures show that £490
million has still not been spent.
• Protect smaller playing fields by cutting the threshold required for sales from
0.4 hectares to 0.2. This was promised by John Prescott six years ago, but
still has not happened.
• Close the loophole whereby even a large playing field can be boarded up for
five years so that planning applications do not have to consult Sport England
regarding change of use.
• Ensure that sport is given a much higher priority in the school curriculum.
Despite £1.4 billion of government funding between 2004 and 2007, the time
schoolchildren spent playing sport increased by only 14 minutes. 6

MAKING THE MOST OF POLICE COMMUNITY SUPPORT

OFFICERS (PCSOs)
PCSOs are a visible link to communities. They often represent more closely
the diversity of an area than the police. They are well placed to forge stronger
relationships with people through Safer Neighbourhood Teams. They are
ideally placed to identify and work with troubled youngsters, but they need
support and training to make the difference. We would:

• Create a dedicated PCSO youth officer within each Safer Neighbourhood

team, working with schools, youth groups and informally with young people.
They should identify and work with teenagers most at risk.
• Enable ‘junior PCSOs’ so that young people can be involved with local PCSO
teams as a link between community policing and young people.
• Pilot police cadet schemes in local schools or youth groups. This could be a
fantastic opportunity for young people to be active in their communities and
improve the relationship between young people and those in authority. These
could be piloted in conjunction with the Youth Volunteer Force.
• Ask the National Police Improvement Agency to assess the role of PCSOs in
tackling anti-social behaviour and teenage drinking.

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STOPPING THE SALE OF ALCOHOL TO KIDS
The legal powers to tackle irresponsible drinking amongst teenagers already
exist. Labours talk of ‘crackdowns’ and ‘new powers’ is just an effort to chase
headlines. The powers that already exist need to be enforced properly and
local people must be empowered to fight the problems relating to alcohol and
young people in their area. We would:

• Introduce a one strike and you’re out’ for those who sell alcohol to children.
We will ensure that any premises that sell alcohol to anyone underage will
immediately have their licences reviewed. If they are shown to have failed to
demonstrate due diligence in the sale of alcohol then they will have their
licence revoked at the first offence and fined. Recent Home Office figures
revealed that of 2,683 premises targeted, children were able to buy alcohol at
40% of premises at their first attempt.7 8
• Give local councils more power to set conditions on licences and ensure they
are enforced.
• Empower local councils to levy taxes on businesses which cause anti-social
behaviour by allowing drunkenness on our streets. The money raised could
be used for activities to divert children away from crime and anti-social
behaviour.
• Encourage councils to share good practice on successful approaches to
alcohol related disorder and licensing policy.

TACKLING ALCOHOL ABUSE

There are serious problems relating to alcohol abuse among young people.
The worst excesses of alcohol abuse must be combated and the root causes
addressed through education and treatment. We would:

• Place a greater focus on tackling alcohol addiction, which can be just as

dangerous and devastating as drug addition for young people, their families
and communities.
• Place the same focus on teaching children in school about the physiological
dangers of alcohol as are currently used in warning young people about the
dangers of drugs and sex. Alcohol and drug abuse is best tackled through
education rather than ‘crackdowns’ and playing politics with the drugs
classification system.
• More treatment for alcohol abuse should be available in the community.
Research suggests that currently seven times as much is spent on tackling
drug addiction as alcohol addiction.9
• Expand the use of the 1 minute Paddington Alcohol Test, where a short
screening questionnaire can drastically increase the detection rate of alcohol
misuse. This would be particularly effective for young people admitted to
hospital through alcohol abuse. Patients tested in A&E are then offered an
appointment with an Alcohol Health Worker.

TACKLING DRUG ADDICTION

Drug addiction ruins lives. Thousands of young people are throwing away
opportunities by abusing illegal drugs. The Labour approach has been to
posture on penalties and to criminalise the user, which only reinforces the

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vicious cycle of re-offending. A greater focus needs to be placed on treatment
for the addict and on remorselessly targeting the dealers. We would:

• Extend the use of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTO) as an

alternative to other criminal sanctions and reallocating resources to make
treatment and rehabilitation facilities and programmes more generally
available.
• Make more drug treatment available in the community. Addicts should not
have to be dragged through the courts to access it. Particular attention should
be given to vulnerable young people who are either already addicts or are in
danger of becoming one.
• Expand the use of ‘drugs courts’, which have been successful in New York
and have had some success here. These courts specialise in drugs offences
and allow judges and officials to develop an expertise in the area and better
evaluate the best course of action for the offender and the community. They
also allow judges to follow through with an alternative if a first course of action
fails. Their remit should be extended to allow alcohol abusers who commit
alcohol related crimes, to be referred, as it is also it is an addiction.
• Target the pushers with a new criminal offence of “dealing”, rather than the
users whose addiction pushes them into a life of crime. This offence,
recommended by the Runciman Report, would make it possible to take more
effective action against those proved to be supplying illegal drugs over long
periods of time. Selling drugs near schools, psychiatric facilities and other
sensitive locations would be an aggravating factor in sentencing.

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PART TWO
A NEW APPROACH TO YOUTH JUSTICE
MORE POLICE ON THE BEAT
The Labour approach of tough rhetoric on penalties has not given
communities reassurance. Fear of crime is far higher than the reality. Police
visibility is important to reassure people and deter low level and opportunist
crime. Bad behaviour is more likely to be nipped in the bud by more visible
police officers than through the threat of harsher punishments. The Liberal
Democrats would put 10,000 more police officers on the beat by scrapping the
Government’s ID card scheme. Youth offending would not just be tackled by
the increased numbers but by better use of their time. We would:

• Scrap one-size-fits-all targets that encourage police to focus on minor crime

by young people at the expense of violent and serious offences and give real
weight to serious and violent crime.
• Cut the police paperwork by making better use of technology; employing
civilian staff in police stations; and evaluating police procedures.
• Maintain cannabis as a Class C drug, in line with the scientific evidence given
by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, allowing the police to
concentrate on serious crimes.
• Roll out Safer Neighbourhood teams across the country, which would hold
joint meetings with the council and the PCSO youth officer to allow the teams
to work more effectively with young people.

TAKING GUNS AND KNIVES OFF OUR STREETS

The presence of so many guns and knives on our streets is deeply worrying,
particularly for young people. The violent use of deadly weapons and gang
violence must be stopped. We need to give top police priority to taking the
guns and knives off our streets so that people are safe, feel safe and are not
intimidated. Early intervention is the key to tackling the alarming gang culture
that now exists, particularly in deprived areas. We would:

• Target gun and knife crime for extensive stop and search, based on police
intelligence.
• Map ‘hot-spots’ for violence and gang activity, which should then be targeted
for intensive high-visibility policing.
• Expand the use of metal-detecting knife arches in areas most at risk,
particularly around schools and transport hubs.
• Use neighbourhood policing and the key role PCSOs have to play in fostering
better relationships with the communities that are most affected, encouraging
people to provide intelligence and give evidence in court.
• Give priority to border officials to confiscate guns. At present, there are nine
times as many officials stopping cigarette smuggling as gun smuggling.10
• Ask schools at risk to prepare audits of crime in their areas to gain
understanding of local problems and counter-act peer pressure for gang
behaviour.

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POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR ORDERS
Too many young people are being dragged through the criminal justice system
for very minor offences. The result is a criminal record and an increased
likelihood of re-offending in the future. What is more often needed is positive
payback to the people who have suffered. Local people could and should be
involved in tackling anti-social behaviour and low-level criminality through the
establishment of Community Justice Panels. These panels would agree
Positive Behaviour Orders, where offenders agree to make amends. This way
valuable court time is saved and the punishment is tailored to fit the crime. We
would:

• Pilot Community Justice Panels (CJPs), pioneered by Chard Liberal

Democrats in South Somerset, in towns across the country. Instead of being
dragged into the criminal justice system, low-level offenders who admit their
guilt go before a panel of local people, where they explain and make a
symbolic apology to the community. The panel then agrees a course of
reparation with the offender.
• Introduce ‘Positive Behaviour Orders’ (PBOs) as part of that reparation,
where offenders agree to a course of action that allows them to make
amends to the community, with a punishment that actually fits the crime.
• Start with young people accused of anti-social behaviour and low-level
offences, who will be given the opportunity through CJPs to agree positive
solutions to repair the damage they have caused.
• Take action against those who refuse to make an apology or refuse to pay
back the community through an agreed work program, such as cleaning up
graffiti, by putting them before the courts to face a criminal record.

ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR CONTRACTS

After ten years and nearly 12,000 Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs), even
the Government has realised that ASBOs are not working. Between 2000 and
2006, 61% of all ASBOs given to juveniles were breached, many more than
once.11 Too many youngsters see ASBOs as a badge of honour. They are
criminalising a whole generation of young people and pushing problems from
pillar to post. ASBOs should be used only as a last resort. Early intervention
mechanisms like Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, pioneered by the Liberal
Democrats in Islington, and other forms of early action like penalty notices for
disorder work better. We would:

• Employ Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs), which have proven to be

both cheaper and much more effective than ASBOs, especially with young
people. Because ABCs are drawn up in consultation with the offender, it gives
more chance for young people to voice their concerns and agree on what is
acceptable.
• Use ABCs together with other forms of early intervention to solve the
problems that cause anti-social behaviour, with the possibility of making it a
condition of an ABC to attend Alcoholics Anonymous or similar groups
assisting with addiction or behavioural problems.

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• Remove the possibility of a custodial sentence for juveniles convicted of
breaching an ASBO. ASBOs have contributed to the criminalisation of young
people by blurring the lines between civil and criminal proceedings.

VICTIM-LED YOUTH JUSTICE

It is time to put the idea of restorative justice into practice. By confronting the
offender with their victim, restorative justice highlights the consequences of
the crime, and can lead to heart-felt changes in behaviour. Not only is it
considerably cheaper than community and custodial sentences, but
restorative justice can be a positive experience for the victim. We would:

• Provide facilities for restorative justice at the earliest opportunity, such as in

schools and care homes where formal sanctions are often unnecessary. Early
intervention using restorative justice has proven to be both more effective at
reducing offending and cheaper than dragging people through the criminal
justice system at a young age.
• Require councils to be responsible for developing a restorative justice panel
to co-ordinate provision between schools, care homes, the police and other
services.
• Make central government responsible for encouraging restorative justice
practices and for ensuring that projects are run locally in every area.
• Involve the police in restorative justice. In more serious cases, where
restorative justice is part of the criminal justice process, research has proven
that training senior police officers to be mediators in the restorative justice
process can be one of the most effective approaches.

MORE EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY PUNISHMENTS

Between 1995 and 2005, there was an 86% increase in 15 to 17 year olds in
custody12 but imprisoning ever-increasing amounts of young people has not
worked. Three quarters of juveniles sent to prison re-offend within one year.13
Effective, targeted community sentences are both more rehabilitative for the
offender and beneficial to society. We would:

• Use custody for young people only as a last resort. Effective community
sentences are cheaper, more rehabilitative and better at reducing re-
offending. They can help give young people the skills and discipline to steer
them away from crime and anti-social behaviour.
• Establish community courts across the country, based on the successful pilot
in Liverpool, to bring the criminal justice system and the community together.
• Give people a direct say in what unpaid work young offenders are given as
community punishments to best pay back the community for the damage
they’ve done and allowing local people to see justice being done.
• Tailor punishments to fit the crime for young people convicted of an offence
involving drugs and/or alcohol. There is a body of evidence that suggests that
community sentences based with GPs or clinics or in alcohol treatment
centres are successful in educating young people about the dangers of
abusing alcohol and drugs.

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1
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Ten years of Labour’s youth justice reforms: an independent audit.
2
Institute for Public Policy Research, Communities can hold youth to account and reduce re-offending, 23 June
2008.
3
Wills, A., Historical myth-making in juvenile justice policy, History and Policy, 2007.
4
Independent on Sunday, The Asbo kids, 23.04.06.
5
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Ten years of Labour’s youth justice reforms: an independent audit, p.9.
6
Liberal Democrat research, available on request.
7
Home Office, Tackling Underage Sales of Alcohol Campaign (TUSAC).
8
Licences may be revoked on review for many reasons, including selling alcohol to children, but in 2006/07
only 92 licences were revoked and 91 were suspended Hansard, 27 Mar 2008: Column 340W.
9
Home Office, Tackling Drugs. Changing Lives: Turning strategy into reality, p.7 and Hansard, 8 Nov 2006:
Column 1796W.
10
Hansard, 1 Nov 2006: Column 540W.
11
Home Office, Crime Reduction ASBO Statistics, 2006.
12
Home Office, Offender Management Caseload Statistics, 2005.
13
Ministry of Justice, Re-offending of juveniles: new measures of re-offending 2000-2005, p. 21.

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