Last week's report into youth crime by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies came as no great shock to anyone working in the area of youth justice. The research found that, although government spending on youth justice has risen by 45% over the past decade, youth crime rates have remained remarkably steady, says Shauneen Lambe.
Similarly, despite targets set with the goal of cutting the number of young people given a custodial sentence, this figure has actually risen by 8% over the same period. However, these figures are not necessarily cause for dismay as closer inspection of the youth justice system sheds more light on this situation.
During the 10 years covered by this report, only 5% of the Youth Justice Board's budget has been spent on measures to prevent youth crime. The remainder has been targeted towards prosecuting 'offenders' and the majority of the board's budget is spent on incarcerating children and young people.
There has also been a general hardening of attitudes towards young people in recent years, with this generation of youths - like the flappers, beats, and punks before them - labelled hoodies and yobs.
The knee-jerk reaction of locking people away is rarely the most appropriate response. The UK already jails more teenagers than any other European country; this is despite the fact that three out of four children who end up in jail have been proven to re-offend within two years of their release. Jail doesn't work with this group: nothing could be clearer.
Most of the young people who find themselves in social or legal difficulties have come from under-privileged backgrounds. Generally they have experienced a turbulent upbringing - many are the victims or witnesses of abuse or extreme violence - or they have learning difficulties, which often remain undiagnosed.
The equivalent middle class children will have huge amounts of cash spent on "sorting out" their problems, yet we as a society are apparently not prepared to invest anything on poorer children who could benefit from similar help. These vulnerable children are being forced into a one-size-fits-all legal structure.
But the problem is broader than this. Behaviour that would once have been explained away as youthful exuberance is now condemned as "criminal". Schools have lost their authority to discipline and have abdicated responsibility to the police. Increasing numbers of teenagers, and often even younger children, are being criminalised who would previously have been handled at home or at school. We have had an 11-year-old arrested and taken to the police station for tripping someone up in the playground, for example.
Surely a government as obsessed with targets and benchmarks as this one should learn from the published results on these issues, and be more creative when looking for solutions.
Legislation by media pressure is a dangerous thing. If society invests in young people before they become entrenched in a pattern of criminal behaviour, the long-term savings to the tax payer and society will be huge.
At Just for Kids Law, we have first-hand evidence that providing the right level of advocacy for young people in all areas of their lives has a positive impact on their ability to become productive members of society. Working with children before they are excluded from school, and finding them appropriate educational resources is key to keeping them off the streets and away from negative influences.
We provide tailored support to young people in trouble with the law, and are led by their needs as they define them.
New Philanthropy Capital has estimated that the cost to society over the lifetime of formally excluding a young person is £464,000. In contrast it costs as little as £2,000 to represent a family through a school exclusion or special educational needs process.
While the approach taken by charities like ours may initially seem more costly, time consuming and complex, the long-term results speak for themselves.
We can't keep locking young people up in 'crime academies' and expect them to emerge as reformed characters. Instead we must deal with each young person as a unique individual in the grip of circumstances so extreme that only fully committed, profound and sustained intervention can make a difference.
· Shauneen Lambe is co-founder of Just for Kids Law
