Labour’s Approach to Crime Prevention Means Safeguarding Sure Start Programmes
Blog / April 1, 2010 / Comment now
EARLY INTERVENTION WITH AT-RISK CHILDREN KEY TO CRIME PREVENTION, SAYS COMMITTEE
In a report released this week, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee says early intervention is key to reducing criminality and the ability to identify those most at risk is an important tool in crime prevention.
The report points out that a young person in the criminal justice system costs the taxpayer on average a staggering £200,000 by the age of 16, while one given support to stay out costs less than £50,000. Yet only 7% of Youth Justice Board funding is specifically dedicated to prevention.
The Committee says a more effective long-term prevention strategy must focus on early intervention with at-risk young children and their parents. Children exposed to the most acute combination of risk factors – which include family neglect, poverty, school under-achievement and a lack of positive role models – are between five and twenty times more likely to offend than those who are not. The Labour Government has made a good start in this area, particularly through the Sure Start initiative, but needs to go further, ensuring that support reaches the most vulnerable and is available throughout the childhood years, including at the point of transition from primary to secondary school.
Sure Start Centres like those in Haswell, Horden, Peterlee and Seaham as well as related child poverty reduction programmes are at risk if we wake up to a Cameron led Tory government bent on slashing public services and social programmes.
Being at-risk does not inevitably lead to offending and certainly crime is committed by people from all walks of life. A more sophisticated crime data analysis would enable Government to spot and tackle emerging crime trends sooner. Such information would better encourage and enable businesses to make offending harder or less appealing to criminals by “designing-out” crime, something which they may not see a benefit in doing otherwise.
Chair of the Commons Committee Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP said:
“The fact is that when it comes to preventing crime, value for money comes from investing in communities, in social programmes, in activities and mentoring for young people, in health, in technology – rather than spending on the criminal justice system. This Government has been tough on crime but not tough enough on the causes of crime. It is clear that prison, and especially short custodial sentences, do little or nothing to prevent offending or aid rehabilitation.”
“Programmes such as Sure Start are particularly valuable and this type of programme should be extended to provide support further into the childhood years. We are also far from maximising the valuable possibilities offered by technologies that can “design out” crime. It took some pressure on the car industry but innovations that design out opportunities for crime have contributed to a 65% reduction in vehicle theft since 1995. Investing in removing the opportunity for committing a crime is so much more effective, so much better value, than dealing with the financial and social costs of a crime once it has been committed.”
