Youth Offending

'Youth crime: Findings From The 1998-1999 Youth Lifestyle Survey' http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors209.pdf) was published by the Home Office in September 2000 and collected information on many of these factors.

The report assessed trends in self-reported offending between 1992/93 and 1998/99 among a sub-sample of 14-25 year olds. Overall, it shows no significant change over the six-year period in the proportion of men or women admitting offending in the last year. However, there has been an increase in offending among young men, which is mainly attributable to increases in fighting and criminal damage.

The Youth Lifestyle Survey found that:

• men under 21 who drank regularly were more likley to be offenders than the occasional or non drinker.

• men aged 22-30 showed no relationship between regular drinking and offending overall but those who drank regularly were more likely to be violent offenders than those who did not

• young males (16-24 years) are much more likely to be the perpetrators of alcohol- related violence than any other group.

• 15% of 12-17 years olds have been involved in some form of anti-social behaviour as a result of drinking alcohol

• a higher proportion of offenders aged 12-17 years were frequent drinkers 36% than non-offenders of which 20% were frequent drinkers

• young people aged 12-15 years who were disaffected from school, had truanted or been excluded, were twice as likely to drink frequently although there is no way of saying which was the cause and which the effect or indeed, if any other causal factors played a part.

• children’s drinking is linked with their parents drinking. The majority of young people drink at home with their parents. Consequently parents are important role models in encouraging sensible drinking

• the more people drank, the more likely they were to be violent offenders

  • 8% of those who drank at least once a month had committed violent offence

  • 15% of those who drank at least five days a week had committed violent offences

For females, there was no relationship between drinking and offending over the age of 15. However, girls aged 12 to 15 who drank regularly were five times more likely to offend than those who drank less often.