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Students more at risk of crime than public

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Students more at risk of crime than public

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Security at university isn't just about what happens on campus. Monkey Business Images/www.shutterstock.com

Students may be more at risk of crime and mental ill-health at some universities than others because of differences in the way institutions consider the safety and well-being of their students. Last year, 2.3m students started university in the UK, representing 4% of the population. These students are at greater risk of crime than other people in Britain. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that 19% of full-time students were victims of crime in 2014-15, compared to 16% of all adults in the general population.

Full-time students experienced higher levels of victimisation than the general population for a number of crimes, including burglary, violence, domestic violence, mugging, robbery and theft. Specific student groups face different issues of personal safety. Recent reports show that women - who make up 56% of new UK university students - are at risk of sexual harassment and assault on university campuses.

We know that international students, who make up 19% of all UK university students, are increasingly concerned about safety. This influences their choice about whether to study in the UK or another country.

Students at risk

But universities need to stop thinking about security purely in terms of "crime on campus" and focus more on the wider pastoral care and well-being of students throughout their university life.

Living away from home for the first time is a big step. Combine this with the pressure of university life such as making new friends, homesickness, financial worries, meeting deadlines and exams - and it is perhaps unsurprising that students are also at greater risk of mental ill health.

One 2004 study involving 250 students found 52% of UK students showed evidence of psychiatric disorder - such as anxiety and severe depression - compared to 30% of the adult population. And a 2015 NUS survey of 1,093 students found that 78% of them experienced mental health issues in the previous year.

Understandably, university counselling services report significant increases in demand as troubled students seek help. But without appropriate support, mental ill-health may result in self-harm or even suicide. As the graph below shows, between 2007 and 2011, 518 full-time students aged over 18 in England and Wales committed suicide, with male students most at risk. Over the same period, annual student suicides rose 50% despite total student numbers only increasing by 14%.

A fragmented approach

Tuition fees have changed students' expectation of universities - students increasingly think of themselves as consumers and universities must now compete on the quality of their services as well as academic reputation. There has been some suggestion that universities have been "negligent" in accepting their pastoral responsibilities.

While a number of universities are taking steps to improve student safety and well-being services, consistency remains an issue across the sector.

Traditionally, university security has been more focused on the campus, rather than on students themselves. The priority has been protecting university facilities, rather than tackling student safety, security and well-being. This needs to change.

Unfortunately, there is currently no comprehensive best practice guide for universities looking to improve the way they do this. As a result, approaches are fragmented and there is a lack of consistency in the range and quality of university security services and student mental health support services.

Easy comparison of the situation across universities is limited by the lack of mandatory, or consistent, recording of incidents. A well-publicised example is sexual assault. Using freedom of information requests, The Guardian reported in 2015 that less than half of Russell Group universities record all student allegations of sexual harassment or assault.

In our continuing research into the different ways universities are addressing safety, security and well-being, one security manager suggested this lack of incident recording was by design. This manager believed that some universities are selective about recording incidents to reduce the risk of potential reputational damage from freedom of information requests by journalists. But we also found university security managers who were carefully recording - and making publicly available - all incidents occurring on campus.

We need a change of perspective. Universities should acknowledge the broader continuum of pastoral care for which they are responsible - from traditional security to student well-being and mental health services, and from on-campus facilities to the wider student experience.

Delivering this requires universities to work in collaboration across the services they deliver and with the police, NHS, local authorities and student venues. This is starting to happen in some institutions, but a more unified approach is needed across the sector.

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Students more at risk of crime than public - universities must rethink how to keep them safe

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Students may be more at risk of crime and mental ill-health at some universities than others because of differences in the way institutions consider the safety and well-being of their students. Last year, 2.3m students started university in the UK, representing 4% of the population.

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Victims of Crime: Understanding the support you can expect

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Victims of Crime: Understanding the support you can expect

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Baby dies in UK prison after inmate gives birth alone in cell

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Baby dies in UK prison after inmate gives birth alone in cell

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Police are investigating the death of a baby in Britain's largest female prison after an inmate gave birth alone in her cell at night.

The Guardian understands that the woman, who had been at an advanced stage of pregnancy, gave birth alone in her cell in the early hours of Friday last week. A source with knowledge of the events said that when prison staff visited the woman's cell on Friday morning the baby was unresponsive.

Vicky Robinson, the director at HMP Bronzefield, confirmed that a baby died at the prison last Friday and said it was supporting the mother.

South East Coast Ambulance Service confirmed it had received a call from the prison at 8.30am last Friday and that one ambulance attended the prison. Police were called shortly afterwards.

Surrey police said in a statement: "The death is currently being treated as unexplained and an investigation is continuing to establish the full circumstances of what happened."

The case raises serious questions about how the woman came to be unsupervised and without medical support during her labour and birth, and about the conditions at the privately run prison.

A spokesman for the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman, an independent body which investigates deaths in prisons and detention centres, confirmed that they are not investigating the baby's death and said it was not part of their remit.

Robinson said: "We are supporting the mother through this distressing time and our thoughts are with her, her family and our staff involved. We are undertaking a full review and working with all relevant authorities during their investigations. It would not be appropriate to comment any further."

Bronzefield is Europe's largest female prison, holding up to 557 inmates, and is operated by Sodexo Justice Services. Concerns have been raised previously about the care of prisoners.

In the case of Natasha Chin, who died at HMP Bronzefield in 2016, an inquest jury found that neglect and systemic failings at the prison had contributed to her death. Four women have died at Bronzefield since July 2016.

There is a mother and baby unit at the prison and women whose babies are born in prison, or who already have a baby when they enter prison, can keep the infants with them until they are 18 months old.

Every year, about 600 pregnant women are held in prisons in England and Wales, and about 100 babies are born there.

According to the Prison Reform Trust, women made up 5% of the prison population in 2018 with 7,745 women incarcerated. The majority of them, 82%, were sentenced for non-violent offences.

Naomi Delap, the director of the charity Birth Companions, which supports pregnant women and new mothers in prison, said: "We are deeply saddened by the report of this incident in prison custody. Our thoughts are with the mother and all those affected by this tragic event. While the circumstances are still unclear and subject to ongoing investigation, this is a powerful reminder of the need for us to all ensure that pregnant and postnatal women have access to high-quality physical and mental healthcare in custody."

Jane Ryan, a solicitor at Bhatt Murphy Solicitors who specialises in cases of women in prison, said: "There are serious concerns raised about risk issues arising from lack of access to midwives when labour commences, access to pregnancy records and full maternity care. It is an indictment of our prison system that a woman was giving birth in a prison cell. There must be a full independent investigation, and possibly an inquest, into these horrific circumstances."

Dr Kate Paradine, the chief executive of the charity Women in Prison, said: "All mothers should have the right to give birth in dignity. But time and time again, we hear of situations where this isn't happening, with mothers regularly being denied access to the vital health and maternity care necessary to give birth safely. This has devastating consequences not only for the baby and mother, but also for the rest of the family they are separated from."

Deborah Coles, director of the charity INQUEST called for an independent inquiry into the baby's death. "This is horrifying and exposes the utter inhumanity of a prison system where a woman can give birth alone in a cell and the baby dies.. The death of a baby behind bars warrants an independent inquiry. The fact that the PPO is not investigating makes this even more essential."
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Baby dies in UK prison after inmate 'gives birth alone in cell'

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Police are investigating the death of a baby in Britain's largest female prison after an inmate gave birth alone in her cell at night. The Guardian understands that the woman, who had been at an advanced stage of pregnancy, gave birth alone in her cell in the early hours of Friday last week.

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Outcomes for children in custody worse than a decade ago, says report

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Outcomes for children in custody worse than a decade ago, says report

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The government has failed to capitalise on the "remarkable" fall in the number of children in youth custody, with outcomes for those sent to prison worse than a decade ago, a report has found.

The research - carried out by the Crest Advisory thinktank and funded by the Hadley Trust, a social welfare charity - found that despite a 73% drop in the number of children in custody, conditions inside youth prisons were worse than in 2009, with rising levels of assaults and self-harm. Meanwhile, reoffending rates are higher for young offenders.

The government should ban custodial sentences of less than six months for children, the authors urged, arguing short sentences do not give a child a "realistic" chance to change their behaviour.

In 2018, almost half of children sentenced to immediate custody were given six months or less. The latest statistics showed 71.5% of those on such short sentences went on to reoffend within a year, compared with 57.4% of children given between one and four years.

The report said: "These short custodial sentences break vital links with family, education and support services, and provide little opportunity for secure establishments to tackle the child's problems.

"Children fail to settle in secure provision and do not feel it is worth investing in the regime or building the relationships with staff members that would help them to make progress."

The head of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, Charlie Taylor, made the same recommendation in 2016, but the government said doing so posed "a risk of creating perverse incentives".

The Crest Advisory report also called for the expansion of youth offending teams up to the age of 25, after figures showed young adults aged 18-24 constituted 8.5% of the population but 16% of those in custody.

"Behavioural neuroscience studies have provided strong evidence that the typical adult male brain is not fully formed until at least the mid-20s, meaning young adult males may be more similar to children than adults in psychosocial terms. Overall, the evidence suggests that young adults are at a formative stage in their lives, and if given the right interventions that they can desist from offending and 'grow out of crime'," the authors claimed.

Responding to the report, the children's commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said the current system was failing children.

"Despite good intentions from many staff, the failure of the current system is well documented. It does not help the public they seek to protect and certainly not those young people whose lives they are failing to turn around," she said.
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Outcomes for children in custody worse than a decade ago, says report

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The government has failed to capitalise on the "remarkable" fall in the number of children in youth custody, with outcomes for those sent to prison worse than a decade ago, a report has found.

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Age of criminal responsibility must be raised, say experts

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Age of criminal responsibility must be raised, say experts

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Hundreds of primary school-aged children are being needlessly criminalised because of the "ridiculously young" age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales, according to experts who are calling for it to be increased.

Representatives from youth services, the justice system and politicians are urging the government to raise the minimum age a child can be convicted of a crime by at least two years from 10 to 12, in response to the Guardian's investigation into youth courts.

Currently, a child aged 10 can be convicted of a crime and subjected to a police investigation, potentially resulting in them having a criminal record for life.

Despite repeated criticism and pressure from the UN and other groups to raise the age to at least 12, the internationally recognised minimum, the UK government has so far resisted. No other country in the EU criminalises such young children, with the age of criminal responsibility set at 14 in Germany, 15 in Sweden, 16 in Portugal and 18 in Luxembourg.

Quick guide
What is the age of criminal responsibility in other countries?

Luxembourg

The age of criminal responsibility in Luxembourg is 18. A child does not commit "crimes", but "acts qualified as crimes", for which a specialised jurisdiction, the juvenile and guardianship court, is responsible for applying measures of protection, care or education.

Germany
Anyone aged 14 to 18 is considered to be a youth. Children under 14 are not held responsible for crimes and older children are only held responsible if morally and mentally mature when the offence took place.
Portugal
The age of criminal responsibility is 16, though children aged 12 and over can be considered to have committed crimes. Children under 12 are considered incapable of breaking the law, and are treated as victims, not offenders, if they do something that would be considered a crime for someone older.
New Zealand
Children under 10 cannot be prosecuted and 10- and 11-year-olds can only be prosecuted for murder or manslaughter. At 12 or 13 children can be prosecuted for certain serious offences if they have previously committed an offence that for an adult would be punishable by 10 or more years, or they have previously been declared in need because of offending behaviour and have now committed an offence for which the maximum penalty includes imprisonment of 10 or more years. However, children aged 10-13 cannot be held responsible for an offence unless it is proved they knew it was wrong. Anyone over 17 is treated as an adult, unless the crime was committed when they were 16 or younger.
United States
In 33 states, there is no minimum age of criminal responsibility, according to the Child Rights International Network. In theory, that means a child of any age could be convicted and sentenced. Of the states that do have a minimum, North Carolina's is the lowest at seven years. The minimum age of criminal responsibility for federal offences is 11, according to CRIN.

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Charlie Taylor, the head of the Youth Justice Board, said England and Wales was "starting to look like an anomaly".

"We need to look at it again," he said, indicating he would support an increase, along with the Association of Directors of Children's Services, one of the most senior police officers in the country, the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, the children's commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, and the leading children's legal charity, Just for Kids Law.

Taylor, a former headteacher, began to question the age of criminal responsibility when a 10-year-old he knew was made to stand trial for rape at the Old Bailey.

"It was a really difficult and complicated case but I had the sense throughout that of: 'Really? Is this really the right place to be?' He wasn't remanded or anything and he didn't receive a custodial sentence but it was an eye-opener," said Taylor.

Offences by 10-year-olds, 2010-18

Olivia Pinkney, the national policing lead for children and young people, said 10 years old was a "remarkably low" age of criminal responsibility. She added that from her experience as chief constable of Hampshire constabulary, it was very difficult for such young children to understand "what is happening to them if they're going through the full consequences of the law".

"There are other ways now of protecting the public" than there were when the age of criminal responsibility was decided, she said.

Children in the dock is an investigation into the youth justice system in England and Wales, which in 2018 saw 26,881 children aged 10-17 cautioned or convicted of crimes ranging from shoplifting and joyriding to rape and robbery.

No other EU country puts such young children on trial. Most other nations do not use an adversarial system which can see children separated from their parents and lawyers via bulletproof glass in what is essentially an adult courtroom with a different sign on the door.

Officially, the focus in youth courts is on rehabilitation, tackling the underlying causes of youth offending. But although there has been an 88% drop in the number of children cautioned or convicted since 2007, reoffending rates have increased. Just over 40% of children who go to court reoffend within a year; for those sent to youth custody, that figure rises to 71.6%.

Children who end up in trouble now are disproportionately likely to be of black, Asian or minority ethnicity. They are vastly more likely to be in care and they are extremely likely to have ADHD, autism spectrum disorders and communication difficulties. This series examines how the court system deals with these vulnerable children and explores whether there is a better way to break the cycle of offending and help them build productive and fulfilling lives.

Was this helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Longfield described the youth courts as "chaotic and dysfunctional", calling for a complete review and revealing plans for a project looking into the youth criminal justice system next year.

"It is an area we have not yet shone a light on and we wanted to get firsthand experience of what was going on. It is not a child-friendly environment where you could really help a young person and is not meeting standards that we had hoped," she said.

Longfield is calling for the age to be raised to 12 as a first step before being raised again to 14.

Last month, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the former lord chief justice of England and Wales, called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to at least 12 in a strongly worded report on the justice system in Wales.

The report said: "There are better ways to deal with children and young people than criminalising them ... The current age of criminal responsibility at 10 is too young. It does not comply with United Nations convention on the rights of the child ... We consider it should be raised to at least 12."

John Bache, the chair of the Magistrates' Association, who has been a youth magistrate for 27 years, said that although cases concerning children younger than 13 were much rarer than they used to be, "there's a lot of sense in making it either 13 or 14 - as it is in an awful lot of European countries".

This autumn, Scotland will stop prosecuting anyone under the age of 12 after its parliament voted unanimously to raise the age of criminal responsibility from eight.

The Scottish law also provides certain safeguards to ensure that harmful behaviour by children under 12 can be responded to in an "appropriate and meaningful way", which will not criminalise children.

In England and Wales, a private member's bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 had been awaiting its second reading in the Commons before parliament was suspended in the runup to the Queen's speech.

The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Navnit Dholakia, who brought forward the proposed new law, said it was "ridiculous" that today's 10- and 11-year-olds were being criminalised by a law made in 1963, when the age of criminalisation was raised from eight to 10.

"It's about time we look at this particular issue and say: 'Do young people at the age of 10 have the capacity to understand the seriousness of what they have done?'" he said.

Ages of children at Manchester youth court

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has urged reform across the UK after the UN's committee on the rights of the child (UNCRC) decided the global minimum age at which a child can be prosecuted should be 14.

Andy Peaden, the head of Leeds youth justice service who represents all heads of youth offending teams in England and Wales, said 10 was "ridiculously young" to be prosecuting children and the age should be raised.

"When you work with young people on a regular basis it's absolutely apparent that 10-year-olds are not able to be wholly held to account for the stuff they do," he said.

Aika Stephenson, the legal director at Just for Kids Law, said the low age was "absolutely crazy". Describing the difficulty in representing 11-year-olds and trying to explain the meaning of a police caution, she said: "What we are expecting of children at that age is quite ridiculous."

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Illustration: Guardian Design

David Lammy, the Labour MP who undertook a review for the government in 2017 on the overrepresentation of people from BAME backgrounds in the criminal justice system, would support increasing the age of majority - the age when someone is deemed an adult - which currently stands at 18. He pointed to Germany, which treats young people under 21 as juveniles if they show a lack of maturity. "Our system has no such flexibility," he said.

Stuart Gallimore, from the Association of Directors of Children's Services, responsible for children's services at every council in England, said it too would support an increase in the age of criminal responsibility.

"I don't think the general public need fear that all of a sudden there would be this huge group of people who are now not going to face justice, particularly if we find other ways of dealing with their behaviours. Often it's just the stupidity of age," he said.

But, Taylor believes, the case of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who killed the two-year-old James Bulger in 1993, has prevented successive governments from changing the age of criminal responsibility.

Recalling the CCTV images of the boys leading James away from Bootle shopping centre, he said: "I think those images of those children holding hands has been such a powerful image so it does loom large."

No 10- or 11-year-olds have been sentenced to custody since 2011, when two brothers from Edlington in South Yorkshire admitted beating and torturing another pair of boys.

The government said it had no plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

A spokesman said: "Setting the age of criminal responsibility at 10 provides flexibility in addressing offending behaviour by children and allows for early intervention to help prevent further offending."
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Age of criminal responsibility must be raised, say experts

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Hundreds of primary school-aged children are being needlessly criminalised because of the "ridiculously young" age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales, according to experts who are calling for it to be increased.

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Share of convicted children who are BAME doubles in eight years

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Share of convicted children who are BAME doubles in eight years

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The proportion of children convicted of a crime who are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds has nearly doubled in eight years, an increase experts have described as an urgent problem.

The steep rise comes despite a drastic drop in the overall number of youth cautions or sentences handed down, which one academic described as an indictment on the whole justice system.

In 2018, 27% of the 10 to 18-year-olds who received a youth caution or sentence were from a minority ethnic background, compared with 14% in 2010, according to official figures from the Ministry of Justice released earlier this year.

Just 26,681 children were cautioned or sentenced in 2018 compared with 106,969 in 2010, thanks to a shift toward dealing with less serious offenders out of court. The increased use of "diversion", however, in which minor offenders and those deemed at low risk of reoffending are steered away from the courts, seems to have disproportionately benefited white children.

Custodial sentences for BAME and white children

When the Guardian monitored all cases passing through Greater Manchester youth court in August, of those defendants whose ethnicity we could establish, 36% were from a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) community. All were male, and many were also in the care system. Only 22% of Greater Manchester's youth population are not white.

Children in the dock is an investigation into the youth justice system in England and Wales, which in 2018 saw 26,881 children aged 10-17 cautioned or convicted of crimes ranging from shoplifting and joyriding to rape and robbery.

No other EU country puts such young children on trial. Most other nations do not use an adversarial system which can see children separated from their parents and lawyers via bulletproof glass in what is essentially an adult courtroom with a different sign on the door.

Officially, the focus in youth courts is on rehabilitation, tackling the underlying causes of youth offending. But although there has been an 88% drop in the number of children cautioned or convicted since 2007, reoffending rates have increased. Just over 40% of children who go to court reoffend within a year; for those sent to youth custody, that figure rises to 71.6%.

Children who end up in trouble now are disproportionately likely to be of black, Asian or minority ethnicity. They are vastly more likely to be in care and they are extremely likely to have ADHD, autism spectrum disorders and communication difficulties. This series examines how the court system deals with these vulnerable children and explores whether there is a better way to break the cycle of offending and help them build productive and fulfilling lives.

Was this helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

The Labour MP for Tottenham, David Lammy, published a review of the overrepresentation BAME individuals in the criminal justice system in 2017. He said the figures had got worse since and that "the fact that half of our youth prison population comes from a black or ethnic minority background would [attract] far more comment and scrutiny" had the political debate not been so focused on Brexit.

Becky Clarke, a senior criminology lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, said the "failure to act, given these issues of racial injustice have been known and worsening for many years, is an indictment of the whole justice system".

She said the increase in levels of disproportionality was a direct consequence of BAME children being dealt "different treatment by practitioners across the criminal justice system", and called for wholesale changes to policing, transparency in the charging and prosecution of cases, and an end to the unequal application of laws such as joint enterprise.

Clarke welcomed the overall reduction in criminalisation of children but said negative racial profiling meant it "hadn't benefited all groups equally, meaning BAME children cannot be diverted out of the system in the same ways as their white counterparts". She put this down to "perceptions of risk and criminality" in the police, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), courts and youth justice service.

Proportion of BAME children among juvenile prosecutions

The Guardian spoke to senior representatives of all four groups and few could point to positive changes in outcomes since the Lammy review, which cited youth justice as the "biggest concern".

Olivia Pinkney, the chief constable for Hampshire and national policing lead for children and young people, conceded there was still "so much more to be done" and "none of us should rest and be comfortable" with the rise in the proportion of young BAME people criminalised. "It's certainly something that will be unwitting, but we need to understand why."

She said the police were taking steps to tackle the problem, pointing to the increased focus on the use of stop and search and mandatory equality and inclusion training.

Gerry Wareham, a senior prosecutor and CPS lead for young people, said the CPS could only choose to prosecute from the cases that the police brought to it. "We're in a demand-led position. We get what the police bring to us," he said.

Lammy said his review not only showed the disproportionate criminalisation of black youth, but also similar trends for young Muslims and a "historic problem" of overrepresentation of young people from Gypsy and Traveller backgrounds.

The youth justice system is in need of further reform, he said. "There's a real need to get a grip on how we're supporting families, how we're supporting young people, what second chances they are getting.

"Those are big questions that obviously affect all young people who fall into the criminal justice system, but they are generally young people from working-class and poor socio-economic backgrounds and most definitely young people from ethnic

He said the government had accepted the "lion's share" of his recommendations, but had chosen not to impose targets for improving diversity in the judiciary, where he believed there were "still real issues". Only 12% of magistrates and 7% of district judges are from BAME backgrounds, according to figures published in July. Youth cases are either heard by three magistrates or a district judge. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) puts the UK's minority ethnic population at 13.8%.

John Bache, the chair of the Magistrates Association, said some magistrates had found it "very difficult to accept the results" of the Lammy review. He said the reason for that was "absolutely obvious, because every magistrate believes that they are acting with scrupulous fairness ... so to be given a report that suggests that that might not be the case is first of all surprising, but also very upsetting because none of us want to be unfair to anybody who appears in front of us." Unconscious bias training for all magistrates and legal advisers launched in June this year.

The Magistrates Association, which represents the 15,000 justices of the peace in England and Wales, has recently convened a group to address disproportionality, including representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the CPS, the Youth Justice Board and charities. The group agreed it was an "urgent problem, especially in relation to the alarming disproportionality illustrated by the proportion of BAME children and young people in custody". It proposed recruiting more diverse magistrates and promoting awareness among magistrates of the different factors that BAME individuals face.

The Ministry of Justice said: "The issues that lead to black, Asian and ethnic minority children being overrepresented in youth custody begin before they enter the criminal justice system, which is why work is under way across the system to change race disparity."
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Share of convicted children who are BAME doubles in eight years

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The proportion of children convicted of a crime who are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds has nearly doubled in eight years, an increase experts have described as an urgent problem. The steep rise comes despite a drastic drop in the overall number of youth cautions or sentences handed down, which one academic described as an indictment on the whole justice system.

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Crime in England and Wales year ending March 2019

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Mediated Mayhem: Media, Crime, Criminal Justice

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Mediated Mayhem: Media, Crime, Criminal Justice

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Knife crime hits highest level since records began

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Knife crime hits highest level since records began

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Knife crime has surged to the highest levels since records began in England and Wales, new figures reveal.

Murder and manslaughter figures also reached a 10-year high in 2018, when 732 people were killed.

Police recorded almost 44,500 offences involving knives or sharp weapons - a rise of 6 per cent - including 252 homicides and 368 attempted murders.

"The volume of knife crime offences has increased by 33 per cent since the year ending March 2011," the Office for National Statistics said, the earliest year for which there is comparable data.

The crimes included almost 19,000 assaults, 17,400 robberies, and 3,200 threats to kill.

Knives were used in more than 400 rapes in the year to December, as well as 150 other sexual assaults.

The figures do not include knife possession, which is also rising amid warnings children as young as nine are carrying weapons in fear for their lives.

The statistics were revealed the morning after an 18-year-old was stabbed to death in Birmingham, and two men were left with life-threatening injuries in a knife attack in east London.

Seven people were stabbed in seven hours in the capital on Tuesday.

Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the increase in violent crime was "very disturbing" as separate figures showed falling numbers of arrests.

"The police are completely overstretched and crime prevention work is far too limited," the Labour MP added.

"The Home Office and government response on knife crime and other rising crimes is still far too weak and just doesn't match the scale of the problem.

"The problem of violent crime is going to get worse unless the government acts, and it is families and communities across the country who are paying a terrible price."

The government has named the drugs market and social media as drivers of violent crime, and has pledged to tackle it with a "public health approach" and programmes under the Serious Violence Strategy.

But police say funding cuts that caused the loss of more than 20,000 officers since 2010 have hampered their ability to prevent and investigate stabbings, while charities have attacked slashed youth-service budgets.

As the prime minister held a knife-crime summit at Downing Street earlier this month, she was accused of holding personal responsibility for the bloodshed, after six years in charge of policing as home secretary.

"What she's done to policing is unforgivable and she's now seeing the impact of that," said John Apter, chair of the Police Federation.

Police forces across the UK have started "prioritising" crime reports to save resources, and Greater Manchester Police revealed this week that 43 per cent of crimes were being "screened out".

The National Police Chiefs' Council said forces needed further long-term funding to deal with the raised terror threat, rising crime and more complex cases like modern slavery, child sexual exploitation and cybercrime.

Chief Constable Bill Skelly, the lead for crime recording and statistics, said: "We know that there are real rises in serious crime, such as robbery, violence and knife crime and our tactics to tackle serious violence such as targeted intelligence-led stop and search, disrupting gangs and working with local NHS trusts are showing success and we are committed to doing all we can to bring crime down."

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, called the figures "deeply troubling".

"Ministers are in denial, refusing to accept that their cuts to police forces have had any impact either on crime levels or the ability to apprehend the criminals," she added.

"The government is failing in one of its most basic duties, to protect its own citizens. These reckless cuts must end."

The Metropolitan Police's own figures showed an apparent drop in homicides, stabbings and gun crime in the capital. Knife injuries fell nearly 10 per cent from 4,732 to 4,277 and gun offences fell 6.8 per cent, according to Scotland Yard.

The policing minister Nick Hurd said the chance of being a victim of crime "remains low".

"More recent Metropolitan Police figures suggest that action to tackle violent crime is having an impact," he added.

"Yet too many people are still falling victim to serious violence, which is why we will continue our urgent and unprecedented action to reverse this terrible trend.

"We have given police forces additional powers and have this year put more than £1bn extra into policing, including council tax and £100m specifically for those areas worst affected by violent crime.

"But law enforcement alone is not the answer which is why our Serious Violence Strategy puts a greater focus on prevention, including by consulting on a proposed new duty to underpin a public health approach to serious violence and investing over £220m in projects to steer young people away from crime."

The ONS statistics also showed an 11 per cent rise in robbery - both using knives and other violence - and 2 per cent rise in vehicle offences.

The separate Crime Survey of England and Wales, which represents people's experiences of crime rather than what police record, showed an 8 per cent increase in theft and 23 per cent increase in theft from outside homes.

Alexa Bradley, deputy head of crime statistics at the ONS, said: "Robbery and vehicle offences have increased whereas burglary has decreased. Lower-volume high-harm violence involving knives has risen, whereas offences involving firearms have decreased."

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Knife crime hits highest level since records began

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Knife crime has surged to the highest levels since records began in England and Wales, new figures reveal. Murder and manslaughter figures also reached a 10-year high in 2018, when 732 people were killed. Police recorded almost 44,500 offences involving knives or sharp weapons - a rise of 6 per cent - including 252 homicides and 368 attempted murders.

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Crime figures: Violent crime recorded by police rises by 19%

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Crime figures: Violent crime recorded by police rises by 19%

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Violent crime recorded by police in England and Wales has risen by 19% in a year, latest Home Office figures show.

The number of homicides - including murder and manslaughter - rose from 649 to 739, an increase of 14%, in the 12 months to the end of September 2018.

It is the the highest total for such crimes since 2007.

Robbery went up by 17%, as did recorded sexual offences, according to the data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Overall crimes recorded by police went up by 7% with a total of 5,723,182 offences recorded.

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation, which represents thousands of lower rank officers across England and Wales, said: "Society just isn't as safe as it once was, and although the police service is doing everything within its power, we are swimming against the tide and it is the public who are being let down."

'Devastating human cost'

There has also been an increase in stalking and harassment offences recorded by police, which have risen by 41%. The ONS said it was likely that improvements in the way such crimes are recorded were likely to be behind the rise.

Public order offences went up by 24% to 427,134. In this case, while the ONS said changes in recording practices might have had an impact, there could also be a "genuine" increase.

Alex Mayes, policy and public affairs adviser at charity Victim Support, said of the violent crime statistics: "These figures starkly highlight the devastating human cost of the recent rises in serious violence that we've seen across the country.

"Working with bereaved families through our national homicide service we know just how destructive these shocking crimes are."

Policing Minister Nick Hurd said overall the chance of being a victim of crime remains low, but added: "We accept certain crimes, particularly violent crime, have increased and we are doing everything possible to reverse the trend."

He said those moves included a proposed increase in police funding, and a strategy to prevent young people turning to crime.

'Government in denial'

Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said: "These statistics show that your chance of being a victim of crime remains low, but we recognise that certain crimes - particularly violent crime - have increased, and we are taking action to address this."

Labour shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the data "underlines the failures of government policy".

She said: "Serious violent crime continues to rise yet the government remains in denial about the effects of its own policies. The Tories have cut police officer numbers.

"They have also exacerbated all the causes of crime, including inequality, poverty, poor mental health care as well the crisis in our schools, especially school exclusions.

"Labour is committed to increasing police numbers and to reversing the austerity policies which are contributing to crime."

On homicide, statisticians said the increase continues an upward trend that has been seen since March 2014, indicating a change to the long-term decrease over the previous decade.

The homicide figures exclude victims of terrorism attacks in England and Wales.

The police-recorded figures on violent crime were looked at alongside information from the NHS, which showed there had been:

An 8% increase in the number of offences involving knives or sharp instruments

A 15% rise in the number of admissions to hospital in England for assaults involving a sharp instrument

A 4% decrease in the number of police-recorded incidents involving firearms

A lot of these crimes, which the ONS describes as "lower-volume, higher-harm types of violence", happened in London and other major cities.

Chief Constable Bill Skelly, of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said some increases could be due to changes in how police record crime, and increasing reporting of incidents, there are "real rises in serious crimes like robbery and violence with weapons, with a devastating impact on victims and families".

Police forces are committed to tackling violent crime and those having offensive weapons, but need to work alongside other organisations like the Home Office "because this is not something that can be solved by policing alone," he said.

"Rising crime, increased terrorist activity and fewer police officers have put serious strain on the policing we offer to the public," he added.

"We are determining the additional capabilities and investment we need to drive down violence and catch more criminals - and we will make the case at the next government spending review."

The Home Office statistics are published at the same time as the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which is based on people's experiences of crime. The survey includes crimes that people do not report to police.

Longer-term trends, measured by the survey, suggest crime overall is stable.

The only main crime type that showed a change in the 12-month period, according to the survey, was computer misuse - including crimes involving scams and computer viruses - which went down by 33%.

'Pretty bleak picture'

Helen Ross, from the ONS centre for crime and justice, said: "In recent decades we've seen the overall level of crime falling, but in the last year, it remained level.

"There are variations within this overall figure, depending on the type of crime. Burglary, shoplifting and computer misuse are decreasing but others, such as vehicle offences and robbery, are rising.

"We have also seen increases in some types of 'lower-volume, high-harm' violence including offences involving knives or sharp instruments."

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the figures painted a "pretty bleak picture" and there were a number of possible reasons for the increase in violent crime.

"The Home Office has said that it's linked to the drugs market and the fact that cocaine, in particular, is now more readily available in this country," he said.

"The price of it has come down, the purity has gone up, and that is increasing the tension between drug gangs, which spills across to the streets.

"We're also seeing in these homicide statistics that there have been more domestic killings.

"That obviously isn't explained by the drugs market but there could be other factors - social factors, could it be to do with the fact there's been a decrease in the number of police officers in the past seven or eight years?

"These are some of the theories being put out there, but there's no simple explanation."

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Violent crime in England and Wales up 19%

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Violent crime recorded by police in England and Wales has risen by 19% in a year, latest Home Office figures show. The number of homicides - including murder and manslaughter - rose from 649 to 739, an increase of 14%, in the 12 months to the end of September 2018.

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Domestic Violence killings reach five-year high

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Domestic Violence killings reach five-year high

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The number of people killed as a result of domestic violence in the UK is at its highest level in five years.

Last year, 173 people were killed in domestic violence-related homicides, according to data obtained by the BBC from 43 police forces across the UK - an increase of 32 deaths on 2017.

One criminologist described them as "invisible victims of knife crime".

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government was "fully committed" to tackling domestic abuse.

Whilst both men and women are killed by domestic violence, the vast majority of victims are women.

Stabbed by her ex-boyfriend on New Year's Day, Charlotte Huggins began 2019 like many across the UK, drinking in a pub and celebrating with friends.

Hours later, her ex-boyfriend Michael Rolle barged into her south London home while her daughter and aunt slept upstairs.

Rolle had spotted Ms Huggins with another man and in a "jealous rage" stabbed her in the back with a large kitchen knife.

He fled the scene and later argued Ms Huggins had fallen on the knife. In July, an Old Bailey jury convicted him of murder.

Liverpool University criminologist Professor Sandra Walklate is keen to point out the weapon used commonly in street murders is equally prevalent in the home.

"That's part of the issue about violence against women, it mostly remains invisible."

About a fifth were committed by a partner, an ex-partner or a family member.

One of the most shocking killings occurred in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

Julian Giraldo woke up on 13 January with a premonition something bad was going to happen. He tried for hours without success to call his parents on the phone.

He was aware of problems in their 17-year marriage but had no idea what was happening as he struggled to get through.

His father Rodrigo Giraldo, a former Colombian police officer murdered his wife, Margory Villegas, in the presence of their newly fostered baby. The 55-year-old then drove to a local beauty spot where he set her body alight, placed the remains into a suitcase, and then buried it in a shallow grave.

As with many other such cases, the killer had a history of domestic abuse.

Julian, who appeared as a witness at the trial, told St Albans Crown Court his mum was someone who "gave her entire life for her family."

Speaking to the BBC in a local park he said: "My dad needs to take ownership for his what he's done.

"He's always been a victim of his own realities. Right now he's living his choices."

Mr Giraldo believes the murder was the culmination "of lots of little tiny things that over time create the situation."

"I am on a quest for personal development for myself, for my family, for my community," he says. "I want to prevent this moment from occurring to other people."

He said: "We want the government to fix all our problems. But I think realistically, what we actually need to do is work collectively as a community to create better things."

Last year, there were 173 domestic killings, making it the highest figure since 2014, according to data supplied to the BBC by 43 police forces in the UK. There were 165 in 2014, 160 in 2015, 139 in 2016 and 141 in 2017.

The increase comes despite a major government effort to tackle domestic violence.

Theresa May made it a high priority when she was home secretary and the ex-prime minister hopes the newly approved domestic abuse laws will provide something of a legacy.

Boris Johnson confirmed the government will introduce a new bill aimed at tackling the "horrific crime" of domestic abuse when Parliament returns.

Domestic abuse shatters lives & tears families apart. We are fully committed to tackling this horrific crime - which is why the Queen's Speech will confirm we will be reintroducing domestic abuse legislation in the next session.
- Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 12, 2019

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter

"These tragic cases are a stark reminder of the devastating impact of domestic abuse and we are determined to do more to protect victims and bring more perpetrators to justice," she added.

However, Prof Walklate argues successive governments have placed too much emphasis on reforming the criminal justice system.

"What might change behaviour is to ensure that police forces, health services, education, social services all speak from the same hymn sheet in relation to violence against women," she says.

"It is at that point at which you start to send out general messages that this is not tolerable."

Analysis

By Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw

The policy paper acknowledged that a "significant proportion" of violent crime was linked to domestic abuse or alcohol but said neither was "driving" the increase. "That is why they are not the focus of this document," it added.

Instead, most of the effort from government, police and other agencies has gone into combating street-based violence, gang crime and county lines drug dealing.

No-one would argue they should not be priorities, as the recent wave of fatal stabbings of teenagers in London demonstrates.

But while the authorities concentrated precious resources on one type of violent crime, did that deflect them from bearing down on another?

There's no firm evidence to prove it, but these latest figures will act as a reminder of the importance of being alert to the pernicious, and often hidden, crime of domestic abuse.

Labour MP Jess Phillips, who campaigns on the issue of domestic abuse, agreed the government had focused too much on the criminal justice system, while police resources had been cut and there were fewer refuge beds available.

"If women trying to escape can't get into refuges, it doesn't matter how cracking the laws are we've made in Westminster," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"They do not help people on the ground."

Super-complaint

CWJ's Nogah Ofer explained police already have powers, such as non-molestation orders, that are not being used enough and could halt the rise in domestic violence-related murders.

"Women have to go off and get orders in the civil courts," Ms Ofer says. "Then those orders are breached and the police don't do anything to arrest the suspects."

"We hear this all the time. There's this constant sense of frustration they're not being taken seriously."

A job advert for the position was put out in December - but as yet, no-one has been appointed to the position.

However, it will already be too late for the family of Charlotte Huggins and dozens of other families affected by domestic violence.

Correction 26th September 2019: An earlier version of this article stated that domestic abuse costs the country £66bn a year. However as this figure comes with a number of caveats we have decided to remove it.

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Domestic violence killings reach five-year high

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The number of people killed as a result of domestic violence in the UK is at its highest level in five years. Last year, 173 people were killed in domestic violence-related homicides, according to data obtained by the BBC from 43 police forces across the UK - an increase of 32 deaths on 2017.

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The racial bias in our justice system is creating a social time bomb

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The racial bias in our justice system is creating a social time bomb

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The racial bias in our justice system is creating a social timebomb | David Lammy

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My review reveals the prejudice that black and minority ethnic children face. We must address this issue urgently, writes David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham

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UK police chiefs urged to adopt harassment of women as hate crime

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UK police chiefs urged to adopt harassment of women as hate crime

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UK police chiefs urged to adopt harassment of women as hate crime

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Campaigners advocate rolling out policy across England, Wales and Northern Ireland

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Violent crime against older people is at record levels - here's why

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Violent crime against older people is at record levels - here's why

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Dating sites are fuelling a rise in the rape and sexual assault of older people. shutterstock

Crime statistics have traditionally suggested that people aged 60 or over are less likely to be the victims of violent crime than the rest of the population. But while national victimisation surveys consistently report lower levels of victimisation among those aged 60 and over, these figures don't necessarily capture the full picture.

This is in part because most victimisation surveys exclude certain groups in society from participating - including those living in "institutions" such as care homes and hospitals. And in some cases, there have been age caps in these surveys.

The rate of victimisation of older people may be lower than other age groups, but it is certainly not rare. A recent global systematic review estimated that at least one in six older people experience some form of physical, emotional, sexual or financial abuse each year.

In the UK, this equates to around 2m people every year. To put this into context, this is higher than the UK current estimates of domestic violence - which stand at 1.9m people a year.

Older victims

Not much is known about the dynamics of violence in later life. Most of the existing research examines a fairly narrow range of violence and abuse - and often excludes sexual violence and violence that leads to a fatality. But my research has shown that these types of violent assaults do occur in later life and gender is a significant feature.

My national study examining reported sexual offences against people aged 60 and over in the UK found that women constituted the majority of victims and men were the primary perpetrators. And even where the victim was male, the perpetrator was also male in most cases. Where the perpetrator was female, there were male co-perpetrators in the majority of cases.

Shutterstock

My research also showed that female victims tended to know the perpetrator - either as an acquaintance or partner, whereas most male victims were raped or sexually assaulted by an acquaintance or a stranger.

These gender differences are also seen in a more recent study I carried out, which examines homicide of people over the age of 60. Analysing 514 homicides involving a victim aged 60 and over between 2010 and 2015, revealed that men were most likely to be murdered by a male stranger whereas women were most likely to be killed by a male spouse or partner.

This research reflects national findings on younger victims, which show that men are generally victimised by other men - often strangers or acquaintances - whereas women tend to be victimised by male partners or other family members.

Missed opportunities

But despite these findings, violence and abuse of older people is being missed by police forces, health professionals and other key agencies because of ageist assumptions about older people being at low risk for violence. All of which results in missed opportunities to identify and prevent violence against older people. As part of my work I spoke to the manager of a Rape Crisis Centre, who told me:

We worry that there is no attention around the occurrence of adult grooming and the predatory behaviour aimed at older women, particularly in the online world ... We have seen a rise in older women accessing services that we consider linked to the higher prevalence of older women using dating and companion sites.

This lack of awareness and acceptance of violence and abuse in later life has also been flagged up in domestic homicide reviews involving older victims.

Not recognised

I have written previously about some of the problems the one-size-fits-all "elder abuse" model creates. It distinguishes violence against older people from violence against other groups - and suggests the problem is one associated with the age of the victim. And this leads to different policy and practice responses. But, as the evidence has shown, violence against older people isn't a problem caused by age.

Instead, violence should be looked at across all age groups. This would allow researchers to examine both age and gender, as well as class, ethnicity and other social characteristics - to get a better understanding of the links between the types of violence people experience at different life stages.

All of which is important, because these figures are likely to increase as the population, in the West at least, continues to age at a rapid pace. In fact, in recognition of the global epidemic, the United Nations has designated 15 June as World Elder Abuse Awareness day in an effort to raise awareness of violence and abuse of older people.

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Violent crime against older people is at record levels - here's why

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Crime statistics have traditionally suggested that people aged 60 or over are less likely to be the victims of violent crime than the rest of the population. But while national victimisation surveys consistently report lower levels of victimisation among those aged 60 and over, these figures don't necessarily capture the full picture.

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Stop and search doesn't work. Let's end this exhausting debate

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Stop and search doesn't work. Let's end this exhausting debate

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Stop and search doesn't work. Let's end this exhausting debate | Franklyn Addo

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Police must support those working for a safer society, says youth worker Franklyn Addo

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Prisoners age more quickly than general population, inspectors say

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Prisoners age more quickly than general population, inspectors say

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Prisoners age more quickly than general population, inspectors say

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Inspectors also say prisons in England and Wales are ill-equipped to deal with growing population of older inmates

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The myth of the she-devil: why we judge female criminals more harshly

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The myth of the she-devil: why we judge female criminals more harshly

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The myth of the she-devil: why we judge female criminals more harshly

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The long read: A man who kills is a murderer, but a woman guilty of violent crime becomes a proxy for all that is evil. Helena Kennedy, who once represented Myra Hindley, asks why

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It's no wonder prisons are in crisis. Inmates are human, too

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It's no wonder prisons are in crisis. Inmates are human, too

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It's no wonder prisons are in crisis. Inmates are humans, too | Mary O'Hara

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Strikes by prisoners and officers in the UK and US highlight how the failing prison system demeans us all, says Guardian columnist Mary O'Hara

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Black people over 9 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched

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Black people over 9 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched

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The Home Office released statistics yesterday on the use of stop and search for the year ending 31 March 2018. While stop and search fell to a historic low of 280,000 in 2017/18 the recent trend in declining use is slowing and in some areas has reversed. And while its overall use has slightly declined, this decrease has disproportionately favoured white people. Stops of white people fell by 13 per cent from the previous but stops of black, Asian and minority ethnic people fell by just one per cent. This means that a BAME person is now four times as likely to stopped and searched as a white person. Black people, in particular, are now 9.5 times more likely to be searched than white people.
(Police powers and procedures, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2018, Home Office)
Particularly concerning is the re-emergence of searches under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which allows officers to search people without suspicion. These types of searches fell from a high of 150,000 in 2008/09 to just 617 in 2016/17, but increased to 2,500 in 2017/18. More recent data from 2018 show the Metropolitan Police carried out over 4,000 s.60 stops in August alone. Over 75 per cent of these searches were carried out on black people.
(Police powers and procedures, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2018, Home Office)
Some commentators suggest that stop and search might have a deterrent effect on crime, particularly on the carrying of knives. This argument has been used to justify the use of stop and search as a response to the recent increase in knife crime in England & Wales. However the Home Office's own Serious Violence Strategy confirmed that falls in stop and search are not driving the trend. And the cross-party Youth Violence Commission also recently concluded stop and search is, in the main, an 'ineffective policy'.

Recent analysis of Metropolitan Police Service Data by the College of Policing exploring the relationship between stop and search and crime levels between 2004 and 2014 also found that higher rates of stop and search were associated with only 'very slightly lower than expected' crime rates the following week or month. The report concludes:

The inconsistent nature and low strength of these associations, however, provide only limited evidence of stop and search having had a meaningful deterrent effect. Thus, it is important not to overstate the benefits of stop and search, particularly at a force or borough level.

Furthermore, these types of analysis do not take into consideration the negative impact stop and search tactics can have on police/community relations (as powerfully highlighted in our report ) and the consequential impact on public willingness to positively engage with the police and the law.

With resources stretched, priority must be given to evidence-based policing, but in the case of stop and search, the evidence of its effectiveness is simply not there. By the Government's own admission recent falls in its use are not driving the increase in serious violence. We are particularly concerned about the rising use of searches where no suspicion is required and alarmed at the ever-widening discrepancy in the rate that BAME people are being stopped when it is so clearly damaging to good community relations.

The CJA is currently exploring the role of community scrutiny of stop and search as a means to making the power's use fairer and more effective. We are currently surveying the make-up and workings of community scrutiny panels across the country and will report on our findings in early 2019.

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Black people over 9 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched - Criminal Justice Alliance

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The Home Office released statistics yesterday on the use of stop and search for the year ending 31 March 2018. While stop and search fell to a historic low of 280,000 in 2017/18 the recent trend in declining use is slowing and in some areas has reversed.

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Police chiefs warn of fewer officers after Treasury shrinks budgets further

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Police chiefs warn of fewer officers after Treasury shrinks budgets further

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Police chiefs warn of fewer officers after Treasury shrinks budgets further

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Fresh cuts will leave largest forces in England and Wales with officer numbers last seen in the 1970s

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Crown Prosecution Service head: justice system can't cope

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Crown Prosecution Service head: justice system can't cope

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Crown Prosecution Service head: justice system can't cope

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Alison Saunders warns that police and the CPS are too under-resourced to tackle crimes efficiently

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GMP Chief - we could be returning to 1970s levels of policing

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GMP Chief - we could be returning to 1970s levels of policing

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(Image: Joel Goodman)

The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police has warned fresh budget cuts could take officer numbers back to levels last seen in the 1970s.

Ian Hopkins said there would be 'little alternative but to cut posts, both officers and staff'.

The force - the country's third largest - has lost about 2,000 frontline officers during the government's austerity drive.

Mr Hopkins said GMP would 'just have to focus' on response capabilities, serious and organised crime and custody facilities, as well as 'the core capabilities of policing'.

In an interview with the Guardian, he said forces have now been told a pensions shortfall of more than £400m must be met from their own already reduced budgets.

The warning comes ahead of the chancellor, Philip Hammond, delivering the autumn budget on Monday.

There have been reports the budget won't include any new money for policing force commanders were hoping for.

Mr Hopkins told the Guardian he was planning on having 6,300 officers by March 2021.

Instead, he said, he is expecting a figure of 5,709.

That figure is less than GMP officer numbers 43 years ago in 1975.

The warning is also set against figures released last week which showed a 17 per cent increase in recorded crime across the region, in the 12 months to June this year.

Violent offending, sexual offences, robbery, theft and vehicle crime all increased.

Mr Hopkins said: "Clearly, we would always look to save money without job cuts, but the reality is 83 per cent of our budget is people and after eight years of efficiencies across all parts of the organisation - which has seen us make reductions of £183m - there would be little alternative but to cut posts, both officers and staff.

"This would just get worse as we would have to further prioritise against threat, harm and risk, screen out more and more crime.

"Essentially we would just have to focus on providing a response function, a serious and organised crime capability and a custody function as the core capabilities of policing."

There were also warnings from a raft of other forces over the impact the unforeseen pensions expenses could have on budgets and officer numbers.

Speaking after the Home Office crime statistics were published the deputy mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Hughes, said: "We have seen crime rise and rise since 2010, and this is no surprise given the savage cuts that have been imposed on police and across our public services.

"Last month, the Prime Minister told us that austerity is over. If that's the case the government should invest now in policing and public services before it's too late to undo the damage of austerity."

The Home Office said: "We are working closely with forces to understand the impact this change will have and are in discussions with police leaders about mitigating the impact on the front line.

"The government is committed to continuing to ensure that the police have the resources they need to do their vital work and the home secretary has been clear that he will prioritise police funding at the next spending review."

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GMP warn new budget pressures could take officer numbers below 1970s levels

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The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police has warned fresh budget cuts could take officer numbers back to levels last seen in the 1970s. Ian Hopkins said there would be 'little alternative but to cut posts, both officers and staff'. The force - the country's third largest - has lost about 2,000 frontline officers during the government's austerity drive.

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Child Lifers and the pains of imprisonment

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Child Lifers and the pains of imprisonment

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The experiences of children in prison have failed to create the kind of scandal which might be expected in a modern, progressive and civilised society. Children are some of the most vulnerable members of our society, yet there seems to be both public and political acceptance of their incarceration, despite mounting evidence of its terribly harmful effects. Although the number of children in prison has fallen enormously since 2007, there are still more than 800 children in prison, of which 42 are under the age of 14. We also need to situate this also within the context of social backgrounds of the children we imprison. More than four out of 10 ( 43%) of children in prison are from BAME backgrounds (which is a significant rise in BAME child prisoners in 2007 when it was 24%) and significant numbers of children in custody have drug problems, learning difficulties, mental health problems and have witnessed or experienced physical or sexual violence. Whereas only 10% of children in care end up going to University, 50% of children in prison have previously experienced the care system.

Dr David Scott spoke at JENGbA's relaunch at the House of Commons last week (see here).

A child prisoner includes children who are held in Secure Children Homes; Secure Training Centres and Young Offender Institutions (the later hold around 70% of all children in custody). When talking about when prison means life for children I mean two things:

First, any sentence which authorises the detention of a child potentially encompassing the rest of their natural life (including sentences of 'detention for public protection' and 'detention at Her Majesty's pleasure');

Second, when a child loses their life after being given a prison sentence. Here sentence length is irrelevant as the point is that their imprisonment has actually brought an end to their natural life.

According to the most recent MoJ statistics the following life sentences have been handed down to people under the age of 18 by year in England and Wales:
Table 1: Child Life Sentences
From 2006 - 2016, 197 child life sentences were handed down. The average age of the person at the time of sentencing is 16 years, but life sentences have been handed down in this period to children as young as 13.

The main life sentence for children is 'detention during Her Majesty's pleasure' (DHMP) but from 2004-2012 290 children were also sentenced to 'detention for public protection' (which were sentences for 'dangerous offenders', Criminal Justice Act 2003 Ch. 5). Although this sentence was effectively abolished in 2012 with the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 a number of those sentenced are still in prison Although the government is not at that time able to identify the exact number of child lifers, the Children Rights International Network ( CRIN, 2015) estimate that the figure serving at Her Majesty's pleasure or other sentence over 14 years in duration is around 400.

Despite the fall in the number of children in custody England and Wales still has the highest incarceration rate for children in Western Europe. It also stands virtually alone in the use of child life sentences. Of the 28 different countries in the European Union, life imprisonment for children has been abolished in 22. Two children have been sentenced to life imprisonment in France in the last 25 years and one In Ireland. There are currently two children serving life imprisonment outside of the United Kingdom in the EU today.

Reducing culpability
The original meaning of detention at 'Her Majesty's Pleasure' was first introduced with the Trial of Lunatics Act of 1800. Yet at the time detention 'Her Majesty's Pleasure' was not to be a place of punishment but intended as a place of safety for those considered 'insane'. With the Children Act of 1908 - which abolished capital punishment for children - detention at 'Her Majesty's Pleasure' was introduced for children aged 10-16. The term was adopted to imply that children had a reduced degree of culpability for murder and that they should not bear full responsibility for their actions. It indicated that it would not be appropriate to impose a life sentence on children. It was only in 1983 that the then Home Secretary explicitly linked detention at Her Majesty's Pleasure with the mandatory sentence of adult life imprisonment.

Further, in most of the countries within the European Union the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 14 . For children in England and Wales it is 10. Yet whereas on the one hand children are held legally responsible for their actions from the age of 10, bizarrely, under the Pet Animals Act 1951, children under 12 are not deemed legally entitled to buy a pet. Indeed, in most instances we as a society recognise we should treat children very differently to adults.

Without doubt, we should like our historical forbearers and many of European neighbours and consider life sentence for children as a form of 'inhuman and degrading treatment' and totally unsuitable for a civilised society. Life sentences for children cannot be justified

When Prison Takes Life
The regimes experienced by child prisoners as one of deliberate harm which leads to thousands of children being physically, psychologically and emotionally damaged every year.

Indeed, child prisons are places of suffering, violence and death.

According to data from INQUEST 78 people under 21 took their own lives in child prisons between 2007-2017 and in total 318 young people under the age of 21 have died in penal custody between 1990-2017.

Coping with prison life is a tenuous, relative and fluid concept that ebbs and flows over time. The real pains of imprisonment are to be found in the denial of personal autonomy, feelings of time consciousness, and the lack of an effective vocabulary to express the hardship of watching life waste away. It is also clear that custody is experienced differently by young people. Young people are emotionally vulnerable and more likely to find the loss of personal relationships on the outside harder to cope with than adults. It has long been noted how suicidal ideation is heavily influenced by the nature of responses by significant others and the 'end of hope'. Young people also have less life experience on which to rely to help to deal with problems associated with prison life, or to manage a suicidal impulse when things are looking bleak and hopeless.

Where do we go from here?
I would therefore like to make the following three brief conclusions

Immediately abolish life imprisonment for children and look to house children who do series wrongs in places of genuine care and safety;

Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility immediately to 14 so that we match most other European Union Countries and call for an independent review to explore the possibility of raising this to 16 as soon as possible; and

Recognise that the pains of imprisonment are potentially deadly for children, and therefore we need to think again about what we mean by child prison as a 'last resort'.

About David Scott
Dr David Scott works at the Open University. He has published a number of books on prisons, including Prisons and Punishment (2010, Sage), Controversial Issues in Prisons (2010, Open University Press) and Why Prison (2013, Cambridge University Press)

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When prison means life: Child lifers and the pains of imprisonment - The Justice Gap

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When prison means life: Child lifers and the pains of imprisonment The experiences of children in prison have failed to create the kind of scandal which might be expected in a modern, progressive and civilised society. Children are some of the most vulnerable members of our society, yet there seems to be both public and ...

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There are lots of different types of crime, and people will react to crime differently. If you've been affected by crime and need support or information, please contact us. Find out more about some of the specific types of crime below.

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Use of non-custodial sentences in England and Wales has fallen sharply but risen significantly in Scotland, according to a report highlighting their effectiveness in preventing re-offending.

The comparative study by the Centre for Justice Innovation reveals that over the past decade there has been a 24% decrease in the number of community sentences imposed in England and Wales compared with an 18% increase in Scotland.

The thinktank's research found that community sentences have consistently reduced incidences of re-offending.

The divergence in courtroom practices between the two jurisdictions emerged only in 2011. In Scotland, the number of inmates has continued falling and plans for a major new jail have been abandoned; England and Wales, meanwhile, have recorded the highest rate of imprisonment in western Europe. There are more than 86,000 inmates in England and Wales - an increase of about 6,000 over the past decade.

Scottish courts enforce a presumption against prison sentences that are shorter than three months on the grounds that they disrupt rehabilitiation efforts and are ineffective. Judges must also record their reasons if they impose short prison terms.

"We, tentatively, suggest that the introduction of the community payback order and the presumption against short three-month prison sentences, both introduced in 2011, seem likely to explain at least some of the rise in the use of community sentences in Scotland," the CJI said. "It remains unclear what has caused community sentences in England and Wales to decline so much since 2011."

Why there should have been such a dramatic decline in England and Wales at a time when there has been no sudden shift in official sentencing policy is a mystery, the report admits.

Both jurisdictions have experienced a decline in the overall number of criminal cases. In England and Wales, however, the political emphasis has been on reversing the number of "unduly lenient sentences" passed by courts.

A major programme of local court closures in England and Wales, initiated in 2011, and privatisation of the probation service may also have reduced magistrates' and judges' confidence in, or knowledge of, alternatives to custody. A newly appointed magistrate who attended the launch of the report at Westminster on Wednesday admitted: "We have no information about community sentences."

The Centre for Justice Innovation has supported US-style problem-solving courts where magistrates and judges supervise offenders after they have been sentenced to ensure they are reforming their lives.

Its report said that community sentences had consistently reduced re-offending in both England and Wales and in Scotland over the past 10 years. "Community sentences can often represent good value for money," it noted, "especially in comparison to short prison sentences - even the most expensive intensive community sentences cost just over one-tenth of the cost of a prison place per year."

Phil Bowen, the director of the Centre for Justice Innovation and a former senior civil servant, said: "When you go to Scotland there are more positive and optimistic developments. Community sentences work because they keep people in their relationships, their accommodation and in work."

Karyn McCluskey, the chief executive of Community Justice Scotland, said: "We have been on a prevention journey for the past 15 years. Short-term prison sentences do not reduce offending. It causes homelessness and breaks up any positive bonds [offenders] may have.

"Our courts and prisons should not be de facto psychiatric hospitals. I have met people who would much prefer to go to jail: it's much easier for then. We want to change society's view of what works."

The Liberal Democrat former justice minister Lord McNally, who served in the coalition government, told the meeting at Westminster that he had had conversations with Conservative ministers who had asked him, 'How do we get past the Daily Mail problem?' - a reference to media demands for longer prison sentences.

"Since Michael Howard said 'prison works' and Tony Blair said he was 'tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime', prison has become a benchmark on how tough we are on crime," McNally added. "Localism works. Whenever you found [magistrates and judges] working with smaller numbers [of offenders], they tended to experiment and innovate."

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Non-custodial sentencing falls sharply in England and Wales

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Use of non-custodial sentences in England and Wales has fallen sharply but risen significantly in Scotland, according to a report highlighting their effectiveness in preventing re-offending. The comparative study by the Centre for Justice Innovation reveals that over the past decade there has been a 24% decrease in the number of community sentences imposed in England and Wales compared with an 18% increase in Scotland.

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Residents are to be consulted on South Yorkshire Police's plan to replace beat bobbies with police community support officers (PCSOs).

Police Community Support Officers were launched in England and Wales in 2002 to tackle the fear of crime and provide back up to forces. But what is their exact role and what powers do they have?

They do not have powers of arrest, cannot interview prisoners or carry out the high risk tasks of police officers.

Introduced under Police Reform Act 2002 - starting in the Metropolitan Police area - PCSOs are meant to help reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

PCSO powers

Directing traffic and pedestrians

Confiscating drugs and alcohol and confiscating tobacco from under 16s

Entering properties to save life and prevent damage

Removing abandoned vehicles

Issue certain fixed penalty notices

They are also expected to reassure and advise the public, and deter crime with visible, sworn officers on foot patrol.

Support officers do have powers to detain people.

They may use reasonable force to prevent a person "making off", while waiting for a constable or accompanying them to a police station.

Home Office figures from September last year show there are 15,469 PCSOs in England and Wales, down 5.5% on 2010 figures.

There were 135,838 police officers, down 4.2%, and 69,407 police staff, an 11.3% fall on the previous year.

PCSOs work as part of a force's neighbourhood policing team, supporting warranted officers and community action teams to solve local problems.

They deal with minor offences, under powers granted by a chief constable, and support frontline policing with house-to-house enquiries, providing crime prevention advice, and guarding crime scenes.

In most forces, they are equipped with a protective vest, but do not carry handcuffs, batons or sprays such as CS gas, because they are not deployed in confrontational situations.

They carry a radio, and often a mobile phone.

PCSOs have powers to stop and search and to take photographs of people under the Terrorism Act 2000.

They can seize vehicles, carry out road checks and control traffic, and can also enforce a cordon.

PCSOs can require a person to give their name and address.

The power to detain may be used when an officer believes somebody has committed an offence, fails to give a name or address, or who they believe has provided false details.

People may be detained for up to 30 minutes before the arrival of a police officer.

Officers can seize alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Fixed penalty notices can be issued by a PCSO to people who cycle on a footpath, litter or commit offences under dog control orders.

Penalties may also be issued for disorder or truancy, dog fouling or graffiti.

Offices have powers to send groups under 16 home, and remove children breaking a ban or curfew notice.

As well as highly visible, uniformed foot and cycle patrols, PCSOs also make house visits to gather intelligence or CCTV footage.

PCSOs work with schools and young people as well as supporting crime and disorder reduction partnerships. Support Officers often work with Neighbourhood Watch, Community Watch, Business Watch, Pub Watch, Farm Watch and Horse Watch schemes.

They also work with religious and business leaders.

No qualifications are needed to become a PCSO - although applicants English should be "proficient" - and prospective officers may have to pass a fitness test.

Community officers may be of any nationality, between the ages of 18-65, but must a UK resident.

A force performing some of their duties has been set up in Scotland, but funds were not found to establish PCSOs in Northern Ireland.

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The role of police community support officers

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Residents are to be consulted on South Yorkshire Police's plan to replace beat bobbies with police community support officers (PCSOs). Police Community Support Officers were launched in England and Wales in 2002 to tackle the fear of crime and provide back up to forces. But what is their exact role and what powers do they have?

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Britain's most senior police officer has said there is some justification to allegations that the Metropolitan police is institutionally racist, despite efforts to improve relations with ethnic minority communities following the Stephen Lawrence scandal.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met commissioner, said his force had to take such accusations "on the chin".

During an interview to be aired in the first episode of a BBC documentary series on Scotland Yard, Hogan-Howe said: "If other people think we are institutionally racist, then we are. It's no good me saying we're not and saying you must believe me. [That would be] a nonsense, if they believe that."

Scotland Yard has been dogged for years by claims of institutional racism, triggered by the damning 1999 Macpherson report into the Lawrence killing and the police response.

Since assuming control of the Met in September 2011, Hogan-Howe has pledged repeatedly to reform the force and restore public trust in officers. Yet Scotland Yard has been dragged into several damaging rows over race, including the shooting of Mark Duggan that led to the 2011 London riots.

In an interview for The Met: Policing London, Hogan-Howe conceded that young black men in London were "very much more likely" to be stopped and searched than young white men. He added: "I can't explain that fully. I can give you reasons, but I can't fully explain it. So there is some justification."

Hogan-Howe suggested that society as a whole was institutionally racist and that it was not a problem confined to the police: "I don't think people often understand what the term means. It's a label, but in some sense there is a truth there for some people and we've got to accept that.

"I think society is institutionally racist. You see lack of representation in many fields - of which the police are one - from judges to doctors, to journalists, to editors, to governments."

His comments come little more than a year after he was urged by the leader of Scotland Yard's black officers' association to "take ownership" and admit that the force was institutionally racist.

Janet Hills said she believed the Met was still institutionally racist. She said this was shown by issues such as higher rates of stop and search of black people, and "the representation of ethnic minorities within the organisation, where ethnic minorities are still stuck in the junior ranks".

The first of the five-part series will be shown on BBC1 at 9pm on Monday.

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Met chief admits institutional racism claims have 'some justification'

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Britain's most senior police officer has said there is some justification to allegations that the Metropolitan police is institutionally racist, despite efforts to improve relations with ethnic minority communities following the Stephen Lawrence scandal. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met commissioner, said his force had to take such accusations "on the chin".

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The report of the inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, to be published next week, is the most significant comment on police and the community since the Scarman report into the Brixton riots of 1981.

Such inquiries - set up under the Police Act, to look into a matter of serious public concern - are far from common and bring to light facts and opinions that are frequently hidden from view.

They require senior public officials to account for themselves in public and provide an opportunity for individuals and organisations - local and national - to submit evidence in writing.

In both Scarman and Lawrence, the issues of central concern related in some sense to a failure in policing. Each inquiry has probed established police procedures and the extent to which paper policies have been carried out in practice. They have brought to the surface fundamental issues concerning police powers, competence, accountability, personnel and training.

The events which triggered the inquiries are fundamentally different, however. The Scarman inquiry was ordered by the then Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, two days after some of the most serious riots on mainland Britain this century. The "temporary collapse of law and order" in Brixton, south London, on April 10-12, 1981, caused widespread injury and the destruction of large numbers of vehicles and buildings.

Scarman's inquiry, which was given added urgency by the rioting which flared again across the country in July of the same year, was fundamentally about the police failure to handle riots which resulted from oppressive policing, the collapse of consent and the failure of competence in dealing with conflict and public disorder.

In contrast to the immediate government response to the rioting, fire and looting seen on television by millions, the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence came about through a much longer and slower burning sense of injustice - a process which took almost five years from April 22, 1993, when Stephen was murdered, to March 16, 1998, when the inquiry team started taking evidence. This inquiry came about not because of any governmental sense of urgency but through the relentless and impassioned campaigning of Stephen's parents, Neville and Doreen Lawrence, and their supporters in the face of official prevarication, obstruction and denial.

The Brixton riots were by no means unprecedented: much more serious outbreaks pepper British history. Nor were they unexpected. But they were, for their time, exceptional and the focus of spontaneous public concern.

The murder of Stephen Lawrence was tragic. However, the deeper tragedy is that it was far from exceptional in the black experience in Britain. Racist murder is the most extreme end of a continuum which spans violent assault, arson, criminal damage, graffiti, intimidation and verbal abuse. The pattern of violence, of which Stephen's murder was the most brutal example, fundamentally undermines the security of black and Asian Britons; it affects the way we think, feel and act.

The ethnic minority communities' experience of violent racism has been compounded by the failure of the police response. Again, while the murder of Stephen seems to have been uniquely plagued by errors and incompetence in the investigative process, the same kinds of criticism have been levelled at the police for decades in cases of violent racism. Common in such cases are complaints that police do not do enough, fail to keep victims informed, seem disinterested, fail to apprehend offenders, or make mistakes in the process of investigation.

In a profound sense, Stephen Lawrence represents the numerous other people murdered under similar circumstances and whose killers have not been caught - and, more broadly still, the countless other black Britons who have been abused, attacked and harassed and whose calls for help have been mishandled by the police.

It is the wider issues of violent racism, and the failure of the police and government to respond effectively to it, that the Lawrence inquiry was set up to address. While Scarman's was a one-man show, the Lawrence inquiry is chaired by a retired judge and is advised by a retired deputy chief constable, a bishop, and a senior figure from the Jewish community. Consequently, it will reflect a deeper, more diverse understanding of the issues than Scarman's.

Crucially, the broader social and political landscape into which the Lawrence inquiry will be published is different in many ways from that in the early 1980s. For example, although there were some eloquent black and Asian people who contributed to the debates during and after Scarman, there are now key people in powerful positions who have personal experience of racial prejudice and discrimination.

Among those who can fully empathise with black Britons, and be their advocate at the highest levels, are John Sentamu, Bishop of Stepney, one of the members of the panel of inquiry, Sir Herman Ouseley, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), and Paul Boateng, the Home Office minister responsible for police policy.

Similar changes in the public representation of the diversity of the British population echo throughout society - including, crucially, in the police service. In 1981, there were only 326 police officers from ethnic minority groups in the whole of England and Wales (0.3 per cent of strength); by 1998, the numbers had risen sevenfold to 2,483 officers (2 per cent).

As the number of black police officers has increased, so has their capacity to influence the organisational cultures, policies and routine practices of policing. A key development has been the creation in 1993 of the Black Police Association. Their submission to the Lawrence inquiry speaks from direct personal experience as police officers of an ethnocentric, "white dominated mono-cultural police service" which contributes to the "evidentially differential service" delivered to ethnic minority communities.

One of the issues which exercised both the Scarman and Lawrence inquiries is the issue of institutionalised racism. Although Scarman rejected the allegation that "society knowingly, as a matter of policy, discriminates against black people", he went on to say that if practices adopted by public bodies as well as private individuals "unwittingly" discriminate against black people, this deserves "serious consideration" and "swift remedy".

He concluded that "all the evidence I have received suggests that racialism and discrimination against black people - often hidden, sometimes unconscious - remain a major source of social tension and conflict", citing examples in housing, education and employment.

Although many critics rightly took exception to some aspects of Scarman's diagnosis, his recommendation to enforce the law on racial discrimination and for positive efforts to be made to tackle racial disadvantage were stated clearly. At least part of the problem, as Scarman later lamented, was that the sense of urgency which existed in the aftermath of the riots dissipated until riots occurred again in 1985.

As we look around in 1999 and ask to what extent racial prejudice, discrimination and social and economic disadvantage remain, we should read again the preface to the 1986 Penguin edition of the Scarman report, in which he recommended that the government "must tackle racial disadvantage, and that means adjusting all government policies to this end".

Only once the idea of institutional racism has become accepted as an explanation for the disadvantage suffered by ethnic minority communities in Britain will we be able to make progress. Although it has been suggested that "institutional racism" has defied definition, those definitions submitted to the inquiry all have a common thread - the essence of which is captured by the CRE's contention that it means "established laws, customs and practices which result in ethnic minorities being treated unfairly and less equally, often without intention or knowledge".

Although Sir Paul Condon refused to accept that the Metropolitan Police is "institutionally racist", in oral evidence to the Lawrence inquiry he admitted that there is "unconscious" and "deliberate" racism in the police service which can be "played out in discrimination" and "the unfair use of arbitrary powers". There is so little difference between the words used by Sir Paul and Sir Herman that further denial of an increasingly accepted term seems pointless.

So where do we go from here? Based on the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, there is an urgent need to incorporate into UK law a duty to eliminate discrimination on the basis of race and to work actively towards equality of opportunity. This should apply to all policies and practices of government agencies - including, of course, the police, but also to other criminal justice agencies including prisons, probation and officers of the court and indeed to housing, education and employment.

Concerning the police, who have special powers in regard to protecting life, liberty and personal security, rigorous mechanisms are required to eliminate racial discrimination - direct or indirect - in the application of police powers, resources and discretion.

There should be the capacity to complain to a fully independent authority, and complainants should have direct access to the legal process. A new independent authority, staffed with trained investigators, should be charged with enforcing anti-discrimination law by responding to complaints and through its own self-generated investigations. Systems for redress should be open, accessible and speedy. Until rigorous mechanisms to ensure the accountability, transparency and the elimination of discrimination are in place, we run the risk of a recurrence of the problems which both the Scarman and Lawrence inquiries were set up to examine and solve.

* Dr Ben Bowling is a lecturer in criminology at Cambridge University. His book, Violent Racism (Oxford University Press, 1998), was submitted as evidence to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry.
Topics

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Scarman was set up in 1981 to examine bad relations between police and the black community. Next week sees the release of the Lawrence inquiry report. Ben Bowling (left) reports on the background: the rise of violent racism and the lessons we can no longer ignore

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The 70 recommendations include:

* Government inspectors will have "full and unfettered powers" to inspect police services. An investigation into the Metropolitan Police will begin immediately, with particular emphasis on unsolved murders and the handling of racist incidents.

* The Government will establish performance indicators to monitor the handling of racist incidents, levels of satisfaction with the police service among ethnic minorities, training of family and witness liaison officers, racial awareness training, stop and search procedures, recruitment of ethnic minorities and complaints about racism in police forces.

* The Met's remit will be brought into line with that of other forces.

* Police forces should reflect the cultural and ethnic mix of the communities they serve.

* A freedom of information act should apply to all areas of policing (with the exception of the "substantial harm" test for withholding disclosure in exceptional circumstances).

* Race relations legislation should apply to all police officers.

* The definition of a "racist incident" will now include incidents categorised in policing terms both as crimes and non-crimes. It will now encompass "any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person". A new Code of Practice will record all such crimes.

* The public will be encouraged to report racist incidents by making it possible to report them 24 hours a day, and not only at police stations.

* The Association of Chief Police Officers will devise new guidelines for reviews of investigations.

* The Met will review its scene-of-crime procedures, the way it records crimes, its internal inspections and liaison between uniformed officers and the CID.

* Dedicated Family Liaison Officers must exist in every police force at local level. Any complaints or requests from a victim's family must be recorded.

* The Victim's Charter should be reviewed, particularly for racist incidents. Trained victim and witness liaison officers to be available.

The judicial system

* No change is recommended in the standard of proof needed for the prosecution of racist crimes.

* Any evidence of racist motivation to be declared at all stages of the prosecution. No exclusions on the grounds of plea-bargaining.

* Crown Prosecution Service must always notify a victim (or the victim's family) of plans to discontinue a prosecution.

* Consideration of a change in the "double jeopardy" law to enable the appeal court to allow a new prosecution after acquittal "where fresh and viable evidence is presented".

* Consideration of a change in the law that would allow prosecution of racist offences that took place other than in public (such as in the home).

* Consideration of the proposition that victims (or their families) become "civil parties" to criminal proceedings, enabling them to have access to all relevant information in the case.

* Consideration of the provision of legal aid to victims (or their families) at inquests, where appropriate.

* Prevention of the intimidation of victims and witnesses through appropriate bail conditions.

Police procedures

* Revised first aid training for police officers.

* Review and revision of racial awareness training in police forces. Local ethnic minorities to be involved in regular training for all police.

* New powers to discipline police officers for at least five years after their retirement.

* All proven "racist words or acts" should lead to disciplinary proceedings, and such behaviour should normally be punishable by dismissal.

* New steps to ensure independent investigations into serious complaints against the police.

* Review of selections and promotion of officers at inspector level and above.

Stop and search

* No change in the stop-and-search powers of the police. Records of all stop-and-search operations to be published, and a copy of the record given to the person involved.

Progress reports

* Annual published reports on the progress of police authorities in meeting their ethnic minority recruitment, promotion and retention levels.

The wider community

* Consideration of a revised national curriculum to prevent racism and value cultural diversity. School governors and local education authorities to create strategies for dealing with racist incidents.

* Consideration of similar initiatives at a local government level.
Topics

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The report recommends a series of measures that would subject the police to greater public control, enshrine rights for victims of crime and extend the number of offences classified as racist. Freedom of information and race relations legislation will also apply to the police.

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The rise in crime is accelerating with the latest figures showing a 13% rise in all police recorded offences across England and Wales, with even greater increases recorded for violent offences including knife crime, sex offences and violence against the person.

The latest set of crime figures also show an underlying 8% rise in the murder rate, with 629 homicides recorded in the 12 months to June excluding 35 people killed in the London and Manchester terror attacks and the 96 historic 1989 Hillsborough deaths, which were included in the headline figures.

The accelerating trend in the police recorded crime figures, from a 5% rise in the 12 months to June 2015, to 7% in the 12 months to June 2016, and now a 13% rise in the 12 months to this June together with even greater increases in violent crime, will sound alarm bells in Downing Street.

Theresa May might find some comfort in the results of the Crime Survey of England and Wales, which shows a 9% reduction in overall crime but is less effective at providing a good indication of changes in low-volume crimes, including most forms violent crime, or emerging trends.

John Flatley of the Office of National Statistics said: "Today's figures suggest that the police are dealing with a growing volume of crime. While improvements made by police forces in recording crime are still a factor in the increase, we judge that there have been genuine increases in crime - particularly in some of the low incidence but more harmful categories.

"Police figures cannot provide a good measure of all crime in society, since we know that a large volume of it never comes to their attention. The recent increases in recorded crime need to be seen in the context of the overall decline in crime indicated by the Crime Survey for England and Wales," he said.

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Crime rising at increasing rate in England and Wales, police figures show

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The rise in crime is accelerating with the latest figures showing a 13% rise in all police recorded offences across England and Wales, with even greater increases recorded for violent offences including knife crime, sex offences and violence against the person.

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How neighborhood inequality leads to higher crime rates

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Increasing inequality has been linked to rising violent crime rates, but what about property crime? In new research which examines property crime by Census block groups in three US cities, Neil Met...

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A fifth of crimes in England and Wales could be going unrecorded by police, according to a report.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said 14 alleged rapes were among the offences that had not been recorded by officers.

One report of rape was not recorded because of "workload pressure", the inspection of 13 forces found.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the report exposed "unacceptable failings" by the police.

HMIC - which inspects and monitors the 43 police forces in England and Wales - is conducting an inspection into the recording of crime data.

If its initial findings were repeated across England and Wales, it could mean 20% of all crimes were going unrecorded, it said.

Mrs May said it was "quite possible" the HMIC study could lead to an increase in recorded crime.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said the report highlighted both "strengths and weakness" in the forces inspected.

'Unethical behaviour'

An unrecorded crime is classed as one that is reported to the police, but not recorded as an offence.

Each mistake represents a victim losing their chance to get justice and to access support
Adam Pemberton, Victim Support

The failure rate among the forces so far inspected was too high, HMIC found.

"We believe that it is weak or absent management, poor knowledge on the part of those making the crime recording decisions with the crime recording rules, weak or absent training or workload pressures," said Chief Inspector of Constabulary Tom Winsor.

"But because the failure rate is as high as it is... it is impossible to rule out discreditable or unethical behaviour."

The BBC's home editor Mark Easton said crime levels were decreasing.

He said: "There is a great temptation to suggest the police recording of crime reports issue is evidence that stats on crime trends cannot be trusted, fuelling suggestions that crime is rising while politicians say it is falling.

"Crime is falling - fast. It has been for 20 years. Police records have always been a poor measure of crime trends, partly for the reasons identified by the HMIC.

"People should not think their risk of being a crime victim is rising. It is at an historically low level."

Inspectors listened to original calls from the public and the resulting incident reports to check whether or not crimes had been recorded correctly.

Out of a sample of 3,102 incidents across 13 forces audited so far, HMIC found 2,551 crimes should have been recorded but 523 were not. This included reported sexual offences, violent crimes, robbery and burglary.

Describing "workload pressure" being cited as the basis for not recording a report of rape, the report said: "In this example, it was considered that recording the crime would entail too much work, as the officer made a judgment that the circumstances of the complaint made it unlikely that the case would be prosecuted."

The watchdog also found some offenders were being wrongly given out-of-court disposals, including cautions and fixed-penalty notices. In one in 10 cases, the measure could not be justified because of the individual's offending history, it said.

Adam Pemberton, of the Victim Support charity, said unrecorded crimes were "completely unacceptable".

"This is about much more than inaccurate statistics or poor number-crunching - each mistake represents a victim losing their chance to get justice and to access support services."

'Desire to protect'

In many of the cases identified by HMIC... the public have still received an appropriate and responsive service
Chief Constable Jeff Farrar, Acpo

Mrs May said: "HMIC's interim report exposes unacceptable failings by the police.

"It is quite possible, once HMIC has completed its work on recorded crime statistics and made recommendations on how the police need to improve, that we will see an increase in recorded crime.

"If that increase is driven by improved accuracy in the recording of crime or more victims reporting crime to the police, we should welcome it. Such an increase would not mean that crime itself is rising."

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Though only an interim report, the inspectorate's findings are extremely serious."

Chief Constable Jeff Farrar, Acpo's national police lead for crime statistics, said: "There's more to do to raise standards and get consistency across the country but it's important to recognise that in many of the cases identified by HMIC as failing to comply with the Home Office counting rules there's clear evidence that the public have still received an appropriate and responsive service.

"While the report identifies that the Home Office counting rules are not especially complicated, they can be interpreted by forces in different ways. We are working hard to rectify this through training and accreditation of force crime registrars led by the College of Policing.

"The vast majority of officers join the police motivated by a desire to protect the public; nobody joins the police service with the intention of recording crime inaccurately. However, it is clear that the service has not always met the standards of data quality that the public expects."

Met officer James Patrick said he was forced to resign from the force after raising concerns similar to those in the report.

"I started discussing this on a blog way back in 2012 and I feel like telling the truth has resulted in a negative impact," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Victims weren't receiving the right service."

Although HMIC has only inspected 13 of 43 forces so far, this covers 60% of crimes, because two of the largest - the Metropolitan Police and Great Manchester Police - have already been done, HMIC said.

The other forces already inspected are Cheshire, City of London, Devon and Cornwall, Essex, Gloucestershire, Gwent, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, North Wales, North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.

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A fifth of crimes in England and Wales could be going unrecorded by police, according to a report. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said 14 alleged rapes were among the offences that had not been recorded by officers. One report of rape was not recorded because of "workload pressure", the inspection of 13 forces found.

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One in 10 crimes recorded by police are domestic abuse cases

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One in 10 crimes recorded by police are domestic abuse cases

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Incidents of domestic abuse, mostly involving violent attacks on women, make up one in 10 crimes recorded by the police and account for one-third of all reported violent crimes, according to the latest Office for National Statistics research.

In the year to March, 1.2 million women and 651,000 men were victims of domestic abuse, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales. The overwhelming majority of incidents (78%) involved violent attacks.

The ONS figures confirm that domestic murders are overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women - labelled by some women's campaigners as femicide.

The ONS said there were 432 domestic homicides recorded by police between April 2012 and March 2015, of which 315 victims (73%) were women and 117 were men.

Domestic homicides represent a third of all murders in England and Wales. Overall, two-thirds of all murder victims are male.

Among women murdered by a partner or ex-partner, 97% were killed by a man, while among male domestic homicide victims only a third were killed by a woman.

The ONS figures also reveal that domestic abuse is most common in the West Midlands, at a rate of 7.33 cases per 100 adults, and Wales, at 7.07, and lowest in London, at 4.57. The highest rates by police force area are in Suffolk and Cleveland, and the lowest in Surrey and London.

"An estimated 1.8 million adults aged 16 to 59 experienced domestic abuse in the last year, equating to a prevalence rate of six in 100 adults," the ONS said.

"Women were more likely to say they have experienced domestic abuse than men. However, the difference between the number of male and female victims is at its lowest compared with previous years.

"The trend in the prevalence of domestic abuse has remained fairly stable since the year ending March 2009, but is at its lowest since the year ending March 2005."

It said a large proportion of domestic abuse-related incidents were reported to and recorded by the police - 1.03m of the 1.8m - and after investigations the police concluded in 41% of these cases (421,000) that a domestic abuse-related criminal offence had been committed.

A decision to charge was made in 70% of domestic abuse-related cases referred by police to the Crown Prosecution Service. Convictions were secured in three-quarters of domestic abuse-related prosecutions.

In 68% of the domestic abuse cases referred to the CPS, the defendant pleaded guilty, so most of the cases recorded as successful outcomes were due to guilty pleas (91%).

"It is harrowing to learn that last year, nearly 2 million adults experienced domestic abuse, including one in eight women aged 16 to 19," said Lucy Hastings, of the charity Victim Support. "That the prevalence is so high among this age group demonstrates the importance of high-quality sex and relationships education being available to equip young people with the tools they need to understand healthy relationships, make safe choices and know how to seek advice and support."

Louisa Rolfe, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead on domestic abuse, said: "The better our data, the better we understand domestic abuse as a crime and the more we can do to support victims and prevent harm, which is what really matters.

"However, this is only the first phase of a wider project and caution must be taken when interpreting the data or trying to make direct comparisons across different organisations, methodologies and points in time. For now, it should be used to stimulate thought rather than draw conclusions."

She said the statistics "do not currently represent the extent of our commitment to tackling domestic abuse and the scale of the challenge we face", adding: "It is still far too acceptable in society.

"Reports to the police are continuing to rise, and the gap between experienced crime and recorded crime is narrowing. It is good to see more victims having the confidence to come forward and start to take back control from those who seek to control and intimidate them. Domestic abuse is a serious crime and never the fault of the victim. We are here to help."

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One in 10 crimes recorded by police are domestic abuse cases - ONS

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Incidents of domestic abuse, mostly involving violent attacks on women, make up one in 10 crimes recorded by the police and account for one-third of all reported violent crimes, according to the latest Office for National Statistics research.

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A police force "fails to record over 38,000 reported crimes each year", a report has estimated.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) was "under-recording too many reports of crime" including rape, violent crimes and sexual offences, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said.

The report found there was a "systemic failure of officers and staff".

GMP Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling said the force needed to improve but it had made progress.

The assessment, completed in May, rated crime recording "inadequate" and estimated that 38,000 reported crimes each year were not recorded, based on an examination between 1 September 2015 and 29 February 2016.

The inspectorate found that GMP:

Recorded about 85% of crimes reported to it

Incorrectly cancelled recorded sexual offences (excluding rape) and offences of robbery and violence

Had "limited supervision to support officers and staff in making good and prompt crime-recording decisions"

Had a lack of understanding among officers and staff of their responsibilities for crime-recording

Had "made some progress" in putting the victim at the centre of its crime-recording decisions and had "made good progress" against a national plan to improve crime-recording

Inspectors said the force had made "some progress" since an inspection in 2014 but "the force is failing some victims of crime".

It added: "There is a systemic failure of officers and staff to make correct crime-recording decisions at the first opportunity.

"This is due to the force often failing to provide a timely response to a report of a crime, not understanding crime-recording requirements, and limited supervision to correct these decisions and improve standards from the outset.

"The force is not always recording reported violent crimes, sexual offences and crimes reported to its public protection investigation units. This means that the force is failing victims of crime too frequently."

The inspectorate said it wanted improvements made within six months.

New IT system

Mr Pilling said: "Whilst there are some unacceptable crime recording failings, many are simply administrative issues and do not mean we have failed the victim."

He said most of the failures concerning violent crime "were in the less serious categories".

"It is important to recognise that there is nothing in the report to suggest that the integrity of officers and staff is in question."

Tony Lloyd, interim mayor of Greater Manchester and the region's police and crime commissioner, said he was making "major investment", as "one of the most significant reasons for GMP's poor performance is inadequate IT systems".

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A police force "fails to record over 38,000 reported crimes each year", a report has estimated. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) was "under-recording too many reports of crime" including rape, violent crimes and sexual offences, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said. The report found there was a "systemic failure of officers and staff".

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Two teenage girls have been detained for torturing and murdering a vulnerable woman in north-east England. But when a child deliberately kills, what is to blame? Is it possible some children are simply bad? Or are there other factors at play?

It seems to rip the notion of childhood - a supposed age of innocence - to shreds. We are accustomed to regarding children as in transformation - young people who will eventually shape into a good, bad or indifferent citizen. We do not generally consider them capable of adult crimes such as premeditated murder.

When proved wrong, shockwaves ripple through the fabric of society.

The murder of James Bulger by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables in 1993 is the archetype.

Similarly, the case of 11-year-old Mary Bell who, in 1968, strangled two young boys "solely for the pleasure and excitement of killing", remains in the public memory nearly 50 years on.
Girls sentenced for 'brutal' murder The friendship that ended in murder A chaotic life and brutal death The murder victim and the media blackout
Perhaps the most difficult element to come to terms with is the apparent coldness and calculation of the killings - these were not impulsive tantrums of explosive rage.

This is a factor in the case of Angela Wrightson's killers. The girls were found guilty of murdering her in a sustained attack, inflicting hundreds of injuries over seven hours. They even took an hour's break to visit a friend before returning to Ms Wrightson's house and carrying on, selecting weapons from around the house, including a table, a shovel, broken glass and a stick laced with screws.

The following day they described to friends how Ms Wrightson "begged them to stop" and they laughed, joked and took selfies throughout.

They were 13 and 14.

The murder was almost childlike in its simplicity. Rather like a toddler who smashes down a tower of toy blocks, the girls attacked Ms Wrightson until she was dead.

They made no attempt to cover up their night of violence. In fact, while wearing blood-spattered clothing - and knowing they'd have been reported missing by their foster carers - they even called the police for a lift home.

So what is to blame for cases such as these?

Poor parenting, being failed by authorities and mental illness have all been cited as reasons.

Cleveland Police say "many questions remain unanswered" about the girls' motive - if there was one at all.

Children tend not to murder for the usual reasons of money, love or revenge.

Carol Anne Davis, who in her book Children Who Kill profiled killers aged between 10 and 17, said many child killers were the product of difficult home lives.

"Most of the violent children I've researched were raised in deeply dysfunctional homes with parents who were brutal disciplinarians or addicts or religious zealots," she says.

"The children were terrified or neglected or emotionally crushed."

In the case of Ms Wrightson's killers, one of her attackers came from a deeply dysfunctional home while the other had run away from home aged 12 after frequent arguments with her mother.

Their case bears some similarities with that of three teenage boys who, in Liverpool in 2012, murdered a homeless man "for a dare".

Connor and Brandon Doran, then aged 16 and 14, and their friend Simon Evans, then 14, were caught on CCTV "roaming the empty streets in the early hours of the morning, looking for trouble" when they came across their victim.

Connor Doran said to Evans: "I bet you haven't got it in you to do him in."

Evans later told a friend: "I started kicking him. I booted him, now he's dead. I kicked him in the head and I stood on his ribs. The noises were terrible."

A judge described a "total lack of parental guidance" in the case. Sentencing them, he said the murder was "a desperately sad reflection on this society that each of you was party to serious violence purely for the sake of it".

The Doran brothers' mother Linda was also jailed for providing a false alibi for her sons. She had previously been prosecuted for failing to send her children to school and police had carried out drugs raids on their home.

The brothers were recipients of multiple anti-social behaviour orders. Another Doran brother, Ryan, was already in prison for a separate murder and a fourth was charged with manslaughter following an arson attack.

The judge went on to tell Linda Doran: "There are not that many mothers who have shown themselves to be either so unwilling or unable to shoulder the responsibility of motherhood as you have. You are a pathetic and tragic character."

But a difficult, disorganised or even abusive upbringing cannot explain why some young people become killers.

Teacher Ann Maguire was stabbed to death by 15-year-old pupil Will Cornick in Leeds in 2014.

Friends described him as a "quiet, typical lad" who was intelligent and did well at school.

The prosecution barrister said his parents were "decent people and responsible parents who are at a loss to understand how and why their son has turned out as he has".

"They have co-operated fully with the police and with the prosecution."

The court heard Cornick showed no remorse, telling a psychiatrist: "I wasn't in shock [after the stabbing], I was happy. I had a sense of pride. I still do."

Dr Elizabeth Yardley, associate professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, said it is possible for children to grow up without a conscience.

"Many experts point to something called psychopathy," she says. "Psychopathy is a collection of negative traits and behaviours - but psychopaths are not mentally ill.

"They are emotionally empty and do not have the same range of complex emotions as the rest of us."

No-one knows what causes psychopathy - it could be a result of brain dysfunction, genetics, or because of a lack of interaction with empathetic adults during formative years.

Daniel Bartlam, from Nottingham, was 14 when he killed his mother Jacqui with a claw hammer, hitting her seven times, fracturing her face and skull.

He had a privileged upbringing and was privately educated. His mother's partner described him as "intelligent and bright, and fun when he was on form".

Bartlam tried to destroy evidence by putting newspaper around his mother's body, pouring petrol on it and setting it alight. He turned on the gas to make sure the house went up in flames. For months he maintained it was the work of an intruder who had broken in.

But on his computer, police found detailed plans for the attack and how to cover his tracks.

In Bartlam's mind, he was a master criminal who got away with a string of murders, rapes and assaults.

He wrote about his fictional counterpart: "The only place he couldn't get away with his bad deeds was with his mother Jackie. So one evening he made it look as though there was a break-in and murdered his mother with a hammer and then set her and the family home alight."

The only indication Bartlam had such tendencies was his love of violent computer games and videos. Research by the American Psychological Association indicated there was "a consistent relation between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behaviour, aggressive cognitions and aggressive affect, and decreases in pro-social behaviour, empathy and sensitivity to aggression".

However, many academics have dismissed the research as "deeply flawed".

Dr Mark Coulson, associate professor of psychology at Middlesex University said: "You would be a fool to deny exposure to repeated violence may have short-term effects - but the long-term consequences of crime and actual violent behaviour, there is just no evidence linking violent video games with that.

"If you play three hours of Call of Duty you might feel a little bit pumped, but you are not going to go out and mug someone."

Brian Masters, who has written the biographies of serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer, Rose West and Dennis Nilsen, pointed out lots of people's parents behave badly but the children do not normally turn into murderers.

However, he does believe a combination of factors can make it more likely someone will kill.

"Is it because they live in a violent society where it doesn't seem to matter so much? No, because they have a capacity to be different, they can choose to go along with the violent society or fight against it," he says.

"Is it because of a psychological disorder? No, that's another excuse.

"But if all these things are combined - if you're badly treated as a child, if you grow up in a violent society, if you've got a psychological disorder - then you don't stand a chance.

"Then the murderer is a victim. But that doesn't mean you feel sorry for them. It means you have attempted to explain very wicked, abhorrent behaviour."

But some crimes, and some criminals, provide nothing to grip on to when making that attempt.

Perhaps trying and failing to understand is as far as we can go.

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Angela Wrightson case: Can children be natural born killers? - BBC News

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When a child deliberately kills, who is to blame?

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An experiment to see whether computers can identify criminals based on their faces has been conducted in China.

Researchers trained an algorithm using more than 1,500 photos of Chinese citizens, hundreds of them convicts.

They said the program was then able to correctly identify criminals in further photos 89% of the time.

But the research, which has not been peer reviewed, has been criticised by criminology experts who say the AI may reflect bias in the justice system.

"This article is not looking at people's behaviour, it is looking at criminal conviction," said Prof Susan McVie, professor of quantitative criminology at the University of Edinburgh.

"The criminal justice system consists of a series of decision-making stages, by the police, prosecution and the courts. At each of those stages, people's decision making is affected by factors that are not related to offending behaviour - such as stereotypes about who is most likely to be guilty.

"Research shows jurors are more likely to convict people who look or dress a certain way. What this research may be picking up on is stereotypes that lead to people being picked up by the criminal justice system, rather than the likelihood of somebody offending."

Facial features

The researchers took 1,856 ID photographs of Chinese citizens that fitted strict criteria of males aged between 18 and 55 with no facial hair or markings. The collection contained 730 ID pictures - not police mugshots - of convicted criminals or "wanted suspects by the ministry of public security".

After using 90% of the images to train their algorithm, the researchers used the remaining photos to see whether the computer could correctly identify the convicts. It did so correctly about nine times out of 10.

The researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University said their algorithm had identified key facial features, such as the curvature of the upper lip and distance between eyes, that were common among the convicts.

But Prof McVie said the algorithm may simply have identified patterns in the type of people who are convicted by human juries.

"This is an example of statistics-led research with no theoretical underpinning," said Prof McVie, who is also the director of the Applied Quantitative Methods Network research centre.

"What would be the reason that somebody's face would lead them to be criminal or not? There is no theoretical reason that the way somebody looks should make them a criminal.

"There is a huge margin of error around this sort of work and if you were trying to use the algorithm to predict who might commit a crime, you wouldn't find a high success rate," she told the BBC.

'Badly wrong'

"Going back over 100 years ago, Cesare Lombroso was a 19th Century criminologist who used phrenology - feeling people's heads - with a theory that there were lumps and bumps associated with certain personality traits.

"But it is now considered to be very old and flawed science - criminologists have not believed in it for decades."

Prof McVie also warned that an algorithm used to spot potential criminals based on their appearance - such as passport scanning at an airport, or ID scanning at a night club - could have dangerous consequences.

"Using a system like this based on looks rather than behaviour could lead to eugenics-based policy-making," she said.

"What worries me the most is that we might be judging who is a criminal based on their looks. That sort of approach went badly wrong in our not-too distant history."

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An experiment to see whether computers can identify criminals based on their faces has been conducted in China. Researchers trained an algorithm using more than 1,500 photos of Chinese citizens, hundreds of them convicts. They said the program was then able to correctly identify criminals in further photos 89% of the time.

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Does poverty cause crime?

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I was 12 years old when I got a letter from my father saying that he was due to serve a three month prison sentence for getting caught for drunk driving, having already lost his licence for the same thing the previous month. He had done stints of a year or two before, and although I haven't seen him since, when I try to imagine him today I think of him in jail. Fraud and violence were characteristic of his behavior-whereas my criminal record consists of the £20 fine I got for running a red light on my bicycle.

Objectively I'm innocent compared to my father, but subjectively it feels like I'm serving a suspended sentence for crimes myself. Like many other people, I need to know that I'm not like my dad, but it's been 20 years since I've seen him. His photographs are bleached, and I don't know enough about him to know why we are different. So I tell myself that I didn't have to endure the degree of hardship that he did growing up in Liverpool 65 years ago. Perhaps the scarcity of his early life made transgression seem necessary, whereas living within the law hasn't caused me any real disadvantage.

Holding fast to this sort of socio-economic determinism makes me feel a little more immune from inheriting the sins of my father, since if his crimes were borne of a poverty that I haven't shared then I won't be part of his sin either, or so goes my own personal lore. Not wanting to be like him has shaped my politics: I believe that if government supported people in poverty more effectively then there would be less people in his situation, and less crime.

With only old memories and fading photographs to go on, I've developed an amateur preoccupation with criminology. Recently I found myself re-examining my beliefs because of Tom Gash's book Criminal: the truth about why people do bad things. Gash is a crime policy advisor and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government who questions the causal link between poverty and crime. For example, he writes that between the 1960s and the 1990s, GDP in the US and the UK went up and relative poverty remained constant, yet crime went up too. During the 1990s inequality soared but crime actually went down.

I wonder what these statistics really say about poverty and crime, so recently I met with Gash in a London cafe for a conversation. Thinking of my father, I ask him, 'Surely places like Broadwater Farm and Baltimore are more crimogenic than Hampstead or Rhode Island?' 'Geographically,' he replied, 'some of the poorest estates have high crime rates. But most crime happens in retail areas and places where people go out drinking. Violent crime, for example, peaks on pay day when people go out spending on drink and get into fights. Where there are high-rises you get less burglary but more violent crime, whereas in the suburbs you get more burglary.'

Although this makes sense to me, I ask him if the people burgling suburban houses might be those living below the poverty line. 'It's complex and nuanced', he says. 'Not having enough money isn't the thing I see causing crime. Pain, trauma and neglect in childhood are more influential factors. Some of those might relate to poverty and some might not.'

Assuming that people in poverty are more likely to neglect their kids, he says, is a slander against the poor. 'We need to ask if poverty impacts on good child supervision, good conditions for care giving and people setting boundaries for their kids', he told me. 'Poverty might mean parents work several jobs so can't supervise their kids. Or poverty could mean parents live on benefits and spend a lot of time with their children. So before we say poverty causes crime, we need to ask what does poverty entail for different communities? Poverty matters in lots of little ways, both good and bad.'

This sounds plausible but I'm not entirely sold. Surely if the same kids who live in poor communities were to live in more affluent areas, their futures would be different, and they would be less likely to be criminals?

By way of a response, Gash tells me about an experiment in New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago where this actually happened. In Moving to Opportunity, 5,000 families were subsidised to move from poor to affluent areas. The results were surprising. Ten years on, the boys in those families were 20 per cent more likely to have been excluded from school than those who stayed behind. They were also more likely to have been arrested, though interestingly they were less likely to have been arrested for violent crime. In this case, moving poor kids to rich areas didn't make them less likely to be criminals, but it did change the type of crime they were likely to commit.

I'm not ready to concede that poverty does not cause crime, but Gash's work has made me consider the possibility that the relationship between the two is more complex than I had thought-and that my story about my father is too crude. As his image fades away, perhaps I've been falling back onto an ideological story to make his picture seem more vivid than it really is. I wonder afresh, what was my father's real story? So I ask Gash, 'If poverty doesn't have the degree of influence on crime I thought it did, then what is crime about?'

He tells me about the importance of small things. Drunk people often get into fights over taxis on a Saturday night, so more taxis, not more police, might be the answer. Motorbike thefts in Germany fell from 150,000 in 1980 to 50,000 in 1986. Why? Because a road safety law made it obligatory to wear a helmet. Most motorbike thieves don't carry helmets. Opportunists find inconvenience tedious. Theft in poor areas goes up when welfare benefits are paid monthly, so payments could be staggered instead.

Small changes, with a sensitivity to the situation, can have a big impact he says. 'If I haven't had enough food or sleep and somebody violates my honour code then I'll tip. Everyone has a tipping point. Reducing crime is about knowing how not to trigger those tipping points.'

For Gash it seems, the difference between offending and not offending is often a matter of these small margins. I'm reminded of Albert Camus' book The Outsider, in which the central protagonist Meursault didn't plan to murder anyone, but on that particular day he happened to be carrying a revolver that he'd taken off of his friend Raymond so that Raymond wouldn't do anything reckless with it. Then a character Camus refers to as "the Arab" pulled a knife on Meursault on the beach. Meursault wanted to walk away, "But the whole beach throbbing in the sun, was pressing on my back," and so he shot the Arab dead.

In the cafe, Gash finishes his coffee. As he is getting his stuff together to leave I ask him, 'If our tipping points can be changed by such small things, by taxis and helmets and sunshine and the like, then do you think we all have the free will to commit or not commit a crime regardless of our circumstances?'

Gash puffs out his cheeks and lets out a long sigh. 'To a degree' he says. 'Two people in the same situation can act differently. Addiction, for example, has a relationship to anti-social behaviour. But then there's the so called "Giro Junkie"-those who will go through withdrawal waiting for their benefits and not steal. Everyone has their own code, even when doing bad things. For example, a man will cheat on his wife, but "only" with prostitutes. Some honour their code and some don't.'

I envy his seeming belief in the power of free will, and wish I could take the view that the difference between me and my father lay in how we chose to act. But as an explanation, that's not enough. I need a story as complex as my feelings are convoluted.

Gash and I say goodbye, both scratching our heads with fresh questions. My assumptions about crime, poverty, politics and free will have been bought under scrutiny. Although I don't take what he says as a reason to care any less about economic inequality, I don't want to bulldoze his empirical insights for the sake of my own political agenda. Reducing poverty might help with the problem of poverty but, as with the Moving to Opportunity experiment, it won't necessarily cure society of as many ills as I'd like.

Cycling home from the cafe, I'm more aware than normal of patrol cars. I see two police talking to a man on the side of the road. I'm always relived it's not me. Stopping at a red light, the gap between me and my father now feels bigger and smaller at the same time: bigger because without a 'poverty equals crime' story, the photographs of him bleach even more. He becomes less recognisable, and more of a stranger. But it's precisely because he is unknown to me that the gap also feels smaller. The mysteriousness of him means that I can't quite dispel my sense of being on a suspended sentence; it's not just the poor who-like Camus' character Meursault-can have one bad day with grave consequences.

The car behind me honks its horn, interrupting my thoughts. I look over my shoulder and the irritated driver is pointing to the traffic light. It has changed to green.

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I was 12 years old when I got a letter from my father saying that he was due to serve a three month prison sentence for getting caught for drunk driving, having already lost his licence for the same thing the previous month.

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Social and racial inequality in our justice system

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Social and racial inequality in our justice system

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On Tuesday, as happens every other day of the year, a criminal appeared in an English court, pleading for leniency. The fact that the offender - who pleaded guilty to a frenzied knife attack on her boyfriend last year - is a woman, is not particularly unusual. 8,447 women were sent to prison in the UK last year, the vast majority for crimes less serious and less violent than this.

In many ways this perpetrator, Lavinia Woodward, aged 24, is a lot like our other female convicts. She spoke of having suffered abuse at the hands of an ex-partner. She described the devastating effects of drug and alcohol abuse. She had, the court heard, had "a very troubled life".

It's a narrative judges are tragically used to hearing. More than half of the women in England's prisons have experienced emotional, physical or sexual abuse. A third have spent time in care, at least half have abused drugs. Although prison can be a death sentence for these vulnerable women - 12 killed themselves in jail last year alone - 25% of the women who were locked up that year had no prior convictions at all. Woodward on the other hand was twice spared a jail sentence. The judge was compelled by her promising future as an aspiring heart surgeon, her prior good character, her history of addiction and abuse. "You had an immaturity about you which was not commensurate for someone of your age," the judge said, understandingly.

It's a familiar point. A recent report into the criminal justice system in England and Wales found that a failure to assess individual maturity - especially of young adults affected by trauma and mistreatment - was perpetuating unfairness in sentencing decisions.

She was able to demonstrate her potential future contribution to society

That report was David Lammy's review of outcomes for black and ethnic minority people in the criminal justice system. For anyone seeking to truly understand why Woodward walked free today, despite having stabbed a victim with a knife and broken the terms of her bail, it makes an excellent starting point. Woodward is white, and privileged. At the time of her attack, she was studying medicine at Christ Church college, Oxford. She had attended a prestigious international school. She could afford an excellent lawyer. She was able to demonstrate - in a language the judiciary can easily understand - her potential future contribution to society.

Lammy's report found that our police, prosecutors and judges favour people like Woodward on a systemic scale. White people are less likely to go to prison - where ethnic minorities make up 12% of the population despite representing only 3% of society. White offending is treated differently by the media. Count the number of times, for example, Woodward's stabbing of her boyfriend - who is also white - was described in a newspaper headline as "white on white crime".

The standard refrain when reports like Lammy's are published, is that the disproportionate number of black people deserve to be there, because they have offended. In this respect, Woodward's case is very useful. She offended, in a serious way. She is as deserving of a prison sentence as the young black men so often reported as being involved in stabbings, or the thousands of women whose abuse and addiction leads directly to patterns of offending. But in her case, we are willing to open our minds to the concept that behind the crime lies someone white, educated, and promising.

Woodward's mitigating pleas of drug abuse and sincere regret were no doubt made all the more heart-wrenching by her QC - a "top criminal lawyer" who specialises in defending wealthy people - including sports stars. Lawyers like this are, after years of austerity, becoming a luxury for those who can afford to pay privately, with even the most committed warning that we are creating "service ghettoes", where the quality of your defence depends on whether, like Woodward, you can afford to pay to have your story told in the most compelling way. We shouldn't be demonising Lavinia Woodward. As a criminal defence lawyer myself, I could never shake the stories of some of the young people, full of potential but plagued by demons and adverse circumstances, whose future I saw fall apart at the hands of an all too often heartless criminal justice system.

There is a whole debate among penologists as to whether social deprivation should be taken into account by judges when sentencing - an idea which remains controversial. During the riots in 2011, when hundreds of young people - a disproportionate number from deprived backgrounds - were given harsher than average sentences, we went in the opposite direction.

Now it seems when it comes to sentencing more leniently for privilege however - which no one actually intellectually supports - our courts are just getting on and doing it.

Woodward's case is a welcome reminder that it doesn't have to be this way. Judges are quite capable of seeing offenders as human beings, capable of redemption, deserving of help, support and second chances. If they are wealthy, white, and have an Oxford degree, that is.

* Afua Hirsch is a writer and broadcaster

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The Lavinia Woodward case exposes equality before the law as a myth | Afua Hirsch

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On Tuesday, as happens every other day of the year, a criminal appeared in an English court, pleading for leniency. The fact that the offender - who pleaded guilty to a frenzied knife attack on her boyfriend last year - is a woman, is not particularly unusual.

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A different perspective on the Lavinia Woodward case

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A different perspective on the Lavinia Woodward case

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To read the coverage of the Lavinia Woodward case, you'd be forgiven for thinking that she was let off with a slap on the wrist after stabbing her boyfriend with a bread knife because she was "too clever" to be sent to prison. That the judge was bowled over by the fact that she was pretty and blonde and white and rich, and was an Oxford medical student with pretensions to becoming a (non-ironic) surgeon. That he imposed a suspended sentence of imprisonment in circumstances where anyone from any other background would have been met with a stiff helping of chokey.

Truly this is, as our best-selling red top succinctly put it, with a we've-got-a-blank-headline-and-first-edition-is-ready-to-go-so-let's-grasp-for-a-pun-that's-not-quite-there flourish, Toff Justice.

If you have heard, read or watched anything about this case, odds are it will be along those lines. Since Woodward pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding in May of this year and the judge deferred her sentence to September, indicating as he did that he was not minded to impose immediate custody, the commentary has been gushing in one direction. Yesterday, as the judge imposed a 10 month sentence of imprisonment suspended for 18 months, the presses were already poised to spew out repeat copy bemoaning the privileged little rich girl and treacherous judicial indulgence.

Sadly, before arriving at the conclusion that the judge was wrong, few pop-up commentators have paused enquire what the law actually is, or even what the judge actually said. Had they done so, they would have found a far more prosaic and less salacious story lying at the heart of what is, on any sensible reading, a sad and difficult case.

Lavinia Woodward pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding at an earlier hearing at the Crown Court. The facts, as set out in the judge's sentencing remarks, were as follows:

"Having met a few months before, in October 2016 you [the Defendant] began a relationship with a student from Cambridge University. Sadly, you were still suffering from the effects of a very damaging previous relationship with another who had introduced you to class A drugs. You clearly had both drug and alcohol addictions. On 30 December 2016, your partner paid you a visit in your accommodation in Christchurch College in Oxford. It rapidly became clear to him that you had been drinking. He tried to discourage you from continuing your drinking without success. As the evening progressed, you became increasingly volatile. At one stage your partner contacted your mother over Skype in order to seek her assistance over what to do about you. When you discovered this, you became extremely angry, starting to throw objects around. It is clear from the transcript of the 999 call that your partner summoned the help of the police before you picked up a bread knife which was in the room and struck a blow with it to his lower leg. In the course of the incident two of his fingers also received cuts. Your partner managed to partly restrain you, albeit you then started to turn the knife on yourself and he had to further disarm you to prevent further self-harm. When the emergency services arrived it was abundantly clear that you were intoxicated, deeply distraught and mentally disturbed. You were taken to a police station in a very distressed state.

"Fortunately, the wounds that your partner received were relatively minor. The two 1 cm cuts to the fingers were treated at the scene with steri-strips and the cut to the leg was closed with three stitches."

The judge, having heard submissions from her barrister, decided to defer sentence. This is a specific legal power used where a judge wants to give a defendant an opportunity to save themselves from immediate prison - often in cases where a defendant's offending behavior is rooted in substance abuse or mental health problems and the judge wants to see if they will respond to treatment before sentence is decided. If a defendant complies with the requirements that a judge imposes during the deferral period, they can legitimately expect to stay out of prison come the sentence date.

In Lavinia Woodward's case, HHJ Pringle QC explained that he had deferred sentence for two reasons:

"[F]irstly, to allow you to continue with your counselling; secondly, for you to demonstrate over a lengthier period of time that you had truly rid yourself of your alcohol and class A drug addiction."

Four months passed, and Ms Woodward returned to court yesterday, and having satisfied the judge with her conduct during the deferral received a suspended sentence of 10 months' imprisonment. In order to assess how unusual this sentence is, let's look briefly at how the sentencing exercise was carried out.

The offence was unlawful wounding, contrary to section 20 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years. When sentencing, courts are required to follow the Sentencing Guidelines for assault, produced by the Sentencing Council (unless it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so).

First, the court works out what Category the case falls into, by looking at what specified features of harm and culpability are present. The judge formed the view that this was a Category 2 offence. There was lower harm due to the relatively minor nature of the injuries in the context of this type of offence - note that no-one is saying that wounds caused by a knife are not serious; but it's all relative. An offence of unlawful wounding covers a wide range of injuries, from small breaks of the skin right up to life-threatening, body-scarring lacerations. A 3cm cut to the leg, closed by three stitches, and minor cuts to fingers treated with steri-strips, while undoubtedly horrible for the victim, are minor in the context of wounding offences. Looking at culpability, there was higher culpability by virtue of use of a knife.

Category 2 provides a starting point of 18 months' imprisonment, with a range of 18 months' imprisonment up to 3 years. In order to work out where a defendant falls in this range, the court looks at and applies appropriate weight to other features of aggravation and mitigation.

What do we know about the mitigation and aggravation in this case?

As far as aggravating features are concerned, the judge said:

"[T]here is one non-statutory aggravating feature, namely that at the time of the offence you were heavily under the influence of alcohol. Whilst that in part was as a result of a previous and highly damaging relationship, you were old enough and intelligent enough to realise that over-indulgence would severely affect your behaviour."

But it was the mitigating features that gave the judge the most to say:

"When I turn to look, however, for mitigating features the picture is very different. There are many mitigating features in your case. Principally, at the age of 24 you have no previous convictions of any nature whatsoever. Secondly, I find that you were genuinely remorseful following this event and, indeed, although it was against your bail conditions you contacted your partner to fully confess your guilt and your deep sorrow for what happened. Thirdly, whilst you are clearly a highly intelligent individual, you had an immaturity about you which was not commensurate for someone of your age. Fourthly, as the reports from the experts make clear, you suffer from an emotionally unstable personality disorder, a severe eating disorder and alcohol drug dependence. Finally, and most significantly, you have demonstrated over the last nine months that you are determined to rid yourself of your alcohol/drug addiction and have undergone extensive treatment including counselling to address the many issues that you face. In particular, you have demonstrated to me since I adjourned this matter in May a strong and unwavering determination so to do despite the enormous pressure under which you were put and which has been referred to by your learned counsel."

A further matter advanced in mitigation by the defendant's counsel (as reported by the BBC) was that she had suffered domestic violence in a previous relationship, which contributed to her substance misuse.

Taking these strands of mitigation together, it would appear that the judge considered that the starting point should be adjusted downwards from 18 months to 15 months. I say that because it seems that the defendant pleaded guilty at an early stage of proceedings, which would attract "credit" or a discount on her sentence of up to one third. Judges like starting point sentences that are easily divisible by three, so it stands to reason that, although he does not explicitly state as such in the published remarks, he took 15 months and reduced a third to arrive at his final sentence of 10 months' imprisonment.

As for the decision to suspend the sentence, there is no strict test for suspending a sentence of imprisonment, but the guideline offers the following pointers:

On the facts, it is difficult to say that any features on the left hand column are made out; but it can be argued that at least two if not all of the factors on the right apply. The court must have regard to the statutory five purposes of sentencing - punishment, reduction of crime (including by deterrence), reform and rehabilitation of offenders; protection of the public; and making reparations - and will need to assess the appropriate emphasis in any given case. While stabbing with a bread knife is plainly serious, where the injury is not particularly grave, and the court is of the view that more can constructively be achieved by avoiding sending a promising young defendant to prison and shattering their future life prospects, instead offering in the first instance a sentence focussing on rehabilitation to address deep-rooted problems laying behind the offending, then it is arguably in service of those five principles that a suspended sentence of imprisonment, with punitive and rehabilitative requirements attached, might be imposed.

The features of mitigation identified - the mental health difficulties, the efforts to address drug and alcohol abuse, the good character, the genuine remorse - would all further support the decision to afford a defendant a chance on a suspended sentence.

Indeed, this further colour, in particular the mental health dimension, shifts the perspective significantly. It's not just a rich white girl getting a let-off; it's also a victim of domestic violence with severe mental health and substance misuse problems being given a chance to rebuild her life. You may not care for that latter interpretation, but it's no less valid than the former preferred by today's front page "Toff Justice" tabloid headlines, implicitly recycling the nasty myth that money confers mental health immunity.

When we trace the sentencing exercise through, it is plain that there doesn't appear to be anything unusual in this sentence. You may disagree with its merits; you may think that all violent knife offences should result in immediate prison regardless of circumstances or personal mitigation. You may think there should be more women with mental health problems clogging up our prisons rather than receiving treatment in the outside world and trying to forge careers for themselves. But from a legal point of view, there's little out of the ordinary. Not based on what we see in the courts in practice, with defendants of all races and social backgrounds.

The reality is that where a defendant who has never been in trouble is facing a custodial sentence of two years or under, and where they have the prospect of employment, education or caring responsibilities, judges will often strive to avoid passing a sentence of immediate imprisonment. That is not to deny that unconscious social or racial bias plays a part in judicial decisions; basic psychology teaches us that it does, to some degree at least. But the suggestion that this exceptional course is only ever reserved for the Prom Queens (or whatever our British equivalent is) is tired and lazy. The reason you don't hear about the suspended sentences handed down for less photogenic defendants - for the 19-year-old lad starting his apprenticeship, or the 48-year-old mobile hairdresser - is mainly because the media tends not to report on them.

As a final observation, the Telegraph reports that Ms Woodward's QC invited the court to consider imposing a conditional discharge - the lowest form of sanction that a court can impose. The judge refused, clearly of the view that a sentence of imprisonment was required. Had the judge acceded to that invitation, the complaints that the sentence was inexplicably lenient would carry more force. As it is, for the reasons above, there appears nothing unusual, and indeed much humane, about the approach taken in this case.

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No, Lavinia Woodward didn't avoid jail because she was posh, clever and pretty

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To read the coverage of the Lavinia Woodward case, you'd be forgiven for thinking that she was let off with a slap on the wrist after stabbing her boyfriend with a bread knife because she was "too clever" to be sent to prison.

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A 14-year-old boy who went viral on Twitter for dancing the Macarena in a busy Saudi Arabian street has been arrested by authorities.

The teenager is being questioned after being accused of "improper public behaviour" in Jeddah, a statement said.

It is not clear what his nationality was or if he will be formally charged by the public prosecutor.

Earlier this month a singer was arrested for "dabbing" during a concert in the south-west of the country.

In the 45-second clip the teen can be seen disrupting traffic while dancing to the popular 1990s hit song. The clip was believed to have been first posted in July 2016.

Because of the lack of codified penal law in Saudi Arabia, officials and judges have broad discretion in the arrest and punishment of children in the conservative country.

The incident was filmed on a busy street in Jeddah, in the west of the country.

The clip has divided social media, with some users defending the boy and even labelling him a "hero".

Others have suggested his behaviour was "immoral".

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A 14-year-old boy who went viral on Twitter for dancing the Macarena in a busy Saudi Arabian street has been arrested by authorities. The teenager is being questioned after being accused of "improper public behaviour" in Jeddah, a statement said. It is not clear what his nationality was or if he will be formally charged by the public prosecutor.

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(Image: PA)

Reported crime is soaring in Greater Manchester, according to the latest figures.

Statistics show 216,493 crimes were reported last year, up 18,907 on the previous year.

It represents 81 crimes for every thousand people in Greater Manchester, or 24 reported offences every hour.

Last year, reported crime started to rise in Greater Manchester for the first time after years of declining figures.

Senior officers say the increase is in line with national trends and reflects 'improved crime recording standards and increased victim confidence' to report crimes.

The increase also follows years of savage budget cuts.

Greater Manchester Police has already cut £180m from its budget and shed 2,000 police officers since austerity was introduced in 2010, although the force has just started to recruit officers for the first time in years.

GMP must make yet more cuts worth £30m this year.

Police officers on the ground have repeatedly told the M.E.N that criminals have become more active as the thinning blue line gets thinner.

At the same time, demand on policing has increased in other areas, particularly around child sexual exploitation.

The latest annual figures are updated on GMP's website each month, on a rolling basis.

According to the latest numbers published, nearly all types of crime rose in Greater Manchester, with 59,683 reported acts of violence (up 9,875), 6,407 reported sexual offences (up 771), 4,170 robberies (up 631) and 52 homicides (up 16).

Some 109,868 thefts were reported, a rise of 4,478 on the previous year.

Reported drug offences fell by 1,174 to 4,141.

Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling said: "We understand that the communities of Greater Manchester will be concerned about any rise in crime.

"Whilst we recognise that there has been an increase in crime reports, this is in-line with recent national trends and is due to improved compliance with national crime recording standards and increased victim confidence.

"Statistics are useful, but what is more important to us is the service we provide to individual victims of crime on a daily basis.

"We are reassured that the people of Greater Manchester have the confidence to report when they have been a victims of crime and they know that we will be sensitive and take them seriously. There is always more to be done, but I trust in GMP to provide the people of Greater Manchester the service they deserve."

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Crime is soaring in Greater Manchester, according to the latest figures

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Reported crime is soaring in Greater Manchester, according to the latest figures. Statistics show 216,493 crimes were reported last year, up 18,907 on the previous year. It represents 81 crimes for every thousand people in Greater Manchester, or 24 reported offences every hour.