ACS

A report by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King's College London have claimed that the Government's justice reforms have had little impact on youth crime and ministers have "overstated" their success, adding that most targets had been missed despite a "substantial" increase in spending.

The independent study said: "Targets have been missed, with self-reported youth offending remaining stable.

"All the expenditure and activity to reduce youth crime has had no measurable impact.

"Claims of significant success are overstated."

The CCJS is an independent charity that examines all aspects of crime and the criminal justice system.

It assessed the impact of reforms since the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act that set up the Youth Justice Board, which oversees the way young criminals are punished, and youth offending teams in England and Wales.

They found that since 2000-01, spending on youth justice had increased by 45 per cent in real terms. But targets on reducing re-offending have all been missed, with latest figures showing "little progress", the report said.

"The Government has been beset with problems in setting, revising and failing to hit its re-conviction targets for children," it added.

Targets for providing accommodation, education, training and employment, reducing substance misuse and improving mental health had also been missed, it said.

Richard Garside, the CCJS director, said: "The Government's decade-long youth justice experiment was a bold attempt to deploy the full force of the system to tackle problematic and disruptive behaviour.

"This research suggests that the experiment has largely failed, if reported youth offending is the measure of success.

"As the Government explores ways to control spending, this research suggests that ever-growing criminal justice budgets are unlikely to deliver sustainable success."