Youth Offending

Youth Offending Team referrals

During 2014, the Youth Offending Team in Somerset received 1,497 referrals, of which the great majority (88%) came from the Police. These referrals related to a total of 1,073 individual clients. Higher rates of referrals were generally found within the county's urban areas, such are parts of Bridgwater, Chard, Minehead, Taunton, Wincanton and Yeovil.  

First-time entrants to the criminal justice system

Numbers of first-time entrants (aged 10-17) to the youth justice system in Somerset are falling, mirroring downward national and regional trends. In 2014/15, there were 199 first-time entrants in Somerset recorded on the Police National Computer, down from 223 in 2013/14 and 333 in 2012/13.

As a rate per 100,000 of the population aged 10 to 17, Somerset is now broadly in line with the regional and national averages (see Table 1, below).

Table 1: Rate of youth first-time entrants to the youth justice system per 100,000 of the 10-17 population (to end of March)

Young people receiving a custodial sentence

Custody rates in Somerset are low, and lower than regional and national averages. In 2014/15, the rate per 1,000 population (aged 10-17) receiving a custodial sentence was 0.04, compared to 0.18 in the South West and 0.46 in England & Wales.

Offending behaviour of children in care

According to 2013/14 data, 12.2% of looked after children in Somerset (who had been looked after continuously for at least 12 months) received a conviction or a final warning or reprimand during the year ending 31 March 2014. This was lower than the 2012/13 figure of 14.8%, but significantly above 2013/14 regional (5.7%) and national (5.6%) averages*.

*Regional and national comparisons should be treated with some caution as not all local authorities may be applying the same criteria as to what constitutes an offence or how they treat young people who are looked after who offend.