Law and Disorder Where Our Younger Generation is Concerned

I’ve just been reading the Yorkshire Post and the headline splashed across the front page is “The Lawless Generation”.

In the Yorkshire/Humberside region alone 3,400 crimes were committed in 2008 by serial young offenders, including 1,581 crimes committed in Yorkshire alone. (A persistent young offender is defined by the Government as a young person aged 10 to 17 guilty of an offence on three or more separate occasions)

Just to give you a few stark figures, have a look at the tables below:



Number of persistent young offenders/Number of offences committed
Humberside 365 / 669
North Yorkshire 250 / 492
South Yorkshire 388 / 688
West Yorkshire 875 / 1,581

If in the region of Yorkshire/Humberside there are 1,800 repeat persistent young offenders surely this tells us that there is something drastically wrong with our penal system. It is simply not working for young offenders.


First Time Offenders 2008 - 2009

Leeds 1,186
Sheffield 860
North Yorkshire 785
Bradford 720
Kirklees 584
Doncaster 541
Wakefield 532
Hull 514
East Riding 492
Barnsley 471
Rotherham 394
York 292
North East Lincolnshire 266
Calderdale 262
North Lincolnshire 248



There were 8,147 first time offenders in our region according to the latest available figures (for 2008 – 2009). This begs the question why?


Some of the reasons cited for these shocking figures include broken homes, an over emphasis on children’s rights, a decline in moral standards, and a raft of Government initiatives which have completely failed to tackle the problems.


Pre Teen Crime 1997 – 2007

Number of defendants aged 10 – 17 convicted of each type of crime between 1997 & 2007


1997 / 2007 % change
Drug Offences 2 / 22 Up 1000%
Criminal Damage 101 / 226 Up 124%
Robbery 68 / 141 Up 107%
Violence against the person 73 / 142 Up 95%
Motoring Offences 39 / 66 Up 69%
Sexual Offences 16 / 26 Up 63%

Over a ten year period it is obvious that the number of crimes committed by 10 – 17 years olds has grown at a frightening rate. The two main areas for concern are crimes involving drugs which have grown by a horrifying 1000% and crimes involving violence – up by 95% - and remember these are crimes committed by young people between the ages of 10 – 17.


Assaults in Schools 2006 - 2009

Permanent Exclusion / Fixed Term Exclusion
Bradford 31 / 2,291
East Riding 17 / 2,096
Hull 72 / 1,551
Kirklees 58 / 2,438
Leeds 75 / 3,981
North Yorks 64 / 2,489
Rotherham 27 / 2,203
Sheffield 43 / 301
Wakefield 52 / 2,142
York 17 / 837


In the last three years it has been deemed necessary to permanently exclude 417 children from school, and to give fixed term exclusions to 23,329 children. What is the matter with our children today? Why are they rebelling against authority?

Sometime ago I was compiling a blog and I quoted from Keith Halliwell, known as Robocop for his no nonsense attitude to criminals and offenders, and he commented on the lines that this country was heading for a breakdown in law and order. I fear that as far as our younger generation (not all of them!) are concerned we have reached that stage already.