Huge rise in child convictions in Surrey show how Labour has criminalised a generation - Doughty

2.53.22pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 28th Aug 2009

More than a million children have been convicted of a criminal offence and another million cautioned since Labour came to power, according to research by the Liberal Democrats.

The figures, contained in answer to a Parliamentary Question, show that:

1,033,454 children aged between 10 and 17 have been convicted of a criminal offence since 1997. This includes almost 30,000 10 to 12 year olds.

Surrey has seen a rise in the number of convictions of children between 10 and 17 rise from 679 in 1997 to 1062, with a total of 9,395 convictions.

Sussex has seen a rise of 90% in the number of convictions, to 2,522 in 2007.

In Kent 10 to 17 year olds have been convicted 27,370 times since 1997.

The Liberal Democrats propose a new approach to Youth Justice, tackling potential offenders before they enter the criminal justice system. Community Justice Panels should be established to draw up Positive Behaviour Orders (PBOs), which require minor offenders to agree on a course of action to pay back the community they have wronged.

The party is also committed to putting 10,000 extra police officers on the beat by scrapping the Government's national ID card scheme. More officers will enable higher visibility policing at gun and knife crime hot spots and provide improved capability for intelligence-led stop and search.

The Liberal Democrats aim to engage young people and provide activities that will divert them from crime. The party will create a Youth Volunteer Force for every area, with young people working with local authorities on projects that serve the community.

Sue Doughty, Guildford's Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate said:

"While we fully recognize the need for justice when young people offend, we need to get away from locking up young people, and support projects which stop them getting involved with crime in the first place. This government has failed to address the situation and is criminalizing a whole generation of young people. We need to recognize that the more kids are dragged through the criminal justice system for minor offences the greater the chance that they will move on to a life of serious crime.

"It is vital that young people learn how crime impacts on their victims and they need the chance to put things right rather than become confirmed criminals.

"Most of all we want to stop them getting involved in crime in the first place. I know from my work in Guildford and Cranleigh that we get lots of complaints about people hanging around and causing trouble, but at the same time people really support a more constructive approach to working with children and keeping them out of crime."