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Mandatory jail terms for teenage knife crime
Friday 28th October 2011
Should Ministers place a greater weight on harsher punishments, or should the scales be tipped more in favour of rehabilitation and restoration?
Yesterday, Ken Clarke, Justice Secretary announced new plans where 16 and 17-year olds convicted of knife crime would automatically face four- month detention and training orders. According to the Ministry of Justice, this could result in between 200 and 400 teenagers aged 16 and 17 being jailed every year for using a weapon to threaten others.
Leap’s Fear and Fashion programme worked intensively with young people deemed at risk of weapon carrying and also preventatively with young people in schools. Leap trained the young people to deliver one hour workshops to their peers on the causes and consequences of knife carrying, resulting in participants feeling more confident in their ability to stop small conflicts from escalating. Furthermore, 17 out of 23 stopped or reduced their offending behaviour.
Many of the young people who currently face jail sentences are more likely to be socially and economically excluded. Research has shown that the most effective way of supporting these young people is through community sentences, where strong links with family and friends can be retained.
By Lara Stanley
Policy and Communications Officer
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Comments (3) Add a comment
Posted by Tim on 20 Nov 2011 at 6:10am.
I unfortunately spent time in prison for violence in 1998 for A.B.H reduced from grevious which would have carried a longer sentence and since then had found it difficult to find work. I now can't work due to disability but have found a skill that I use to (I hope) good effect and I wish others who want to carry weapons and fight all the time would find something like what I have to take their minds off violence. My skill that I found is photography and have my own website www.timrodwellphotography.co.uk and creating this has took a lot of time and effort but has also helped me to chill out and not be interested in fighting and violence. Nature and the power of it and creativity are what have helped me, and I would love to see all the knife weilding cowards out there to follow suit.
Posted by Nyanna on 10 Nov 2011 at 11:33am.
Posts like this brighten up my day. Thanks for tkniag the time.
Posted by Gemma on 2 Nov 2011 at 3:58am.
i think there needs to be more serious punishment for knife and gun crime but i also feel for other crimes there needs to be better prevention work and a more stable alternative program to prison that allows rehabilitation :)