AYJ Comment: Beating Crime Plan
The UK Government this week published its plan for ‘fewer victims, peaceful neighbourhoods, a safe country’. The Beating Crime Plan promises bold new measures, but in reality fails to take the ambitious steps needed to tackle the root causes of offending, provide adequate support for children, and address the devastating impacts of COVID-19.
The Beating Crime Plan brings together a disparate set of proposals, many of which are previously announced or already in place. Some policies set out in the plan are welcome, such as support for children’s engagement in education, £17 million for Violence Reduction Units, and £30 million Youth Endowment Fund grant funding.
But overall, the plan presents a wholly inadequate response to tackling the enormity of the challenges facing children, families and communities that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as identified in our recent report. Urgent and coordinated action is required to prevent more children being drawn into the criminal justice system in the future, due to increased vulnerabilities and social problems, as a result of the crisis. What is needed is a long-term plan for investment in communities, through early help, access to opportunity and addressing structural inequalities. Instead, the proposals mainly focus on dealing with crime once it has already taken place, with no mention of resolving crime through diversion of children from court, or the role of Youth Offending Services.
Proposals for police league tables for answering calls and requirements for reporting to the Government on ‘results’ signal a concerning return towards a target-based culture in policing. This has historically been particularly damaging to children, when police imposed formal sanctions for low-level forms of behaviour and unnecessarily dragged more children into the criminal justice system.
The AYJ is particularly concerned to see an expansion of stop and search powers confirmed, despite the lack of evidence of effectiveness, and the clear impact on racial disparity and trust in the criminal justice system. Last week, the Home Affairs Committee called for urgent action to tackle unjustified racial disparities in the use of stop and search and other police powers, and a worrying decline of confidence in the police among racially minoritised communities. This report came just days after the Beating Crime Plan introduced measures that are set to make these problems even worse.
Commenting on the Plan, Pippa Goodfellow, Director of the Alliance for Youth Justice, said:
“At a time when so many children and families are in crisis, and youth services and public services are under severe strain, the Beating Crime Plan simply doesn’t come close to meeting these challenges. These proposals are not anywhere near sufficient to provide the strategic, cross-governmental, community-based approach to preventing and reducing crime that is needed.”