Justice system involvement

How are we measuring justice system involvement? 

To get a sense of how many children and young people are becoming involved in the criminal justice system, particularly in relation to violence, we’ve used the number of cautions or convictions of 10-17-year-olds for violent offences reported by the Youth Justice Board. We consider violent crimes to include violence against the person (including offences such as assault and homicide), robbery (which is theft with the use or threat of force) and sexual offences (including rape and other sexual offences).  

It’s important to bear in mind that other factors – such as how readily crimes are reported, the priority the police give to prosecuting certain types of offences and how successful they are at identifying and charging suspects – will affect the number of children with proven offences.