'Punishing children contributes to more crime'
Punishing children in trouble with law contributes to more crime, the report claims
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Wednesday, 05, Nov 2008 06:35
Punishing children in trouble with the law contributes to more crime and an unsafe society, a new report claims.
The study published by the Howard League for Penal Reform today compares the UK's youth justice system with those across Europe.
The authors claim that in the UK punishment is the centre of the response to children in trouble with the law, while in Europe there is deliberate welfare-based approach.
The report suggests that throughout the majority of Europe, a child committing crime is seen as a welfare matter.
"The crime is a symptom of underlying problems which welfare agencies need to address - be they educational difficulties, mental health needs or histories of abuse and neglect," the publication states.
By comparison, it is claimed that the UK system is engineered to respond primarily through punishment.
"Given the continuing degree to which youth crime is seen as an issue of great public concern - for example, knife crime among inner city teenage boys - it is clear that generations of a system based on punishing children contributes to more crime and an unsafe society," director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Frances Crook, said.
"All children should be treated equally. What a child has done is separate to who they are, and if a child commits a criminal offence, that offence should not define them.
"Only by addressing the needs of the whole child can enduring solutions be found."