Policing young people

Children and Young people (C&YP) account for over 12 million of the population in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

C&YP are not mini adults as their emotional and physical maturity is different from adults and needs to be understood.

Young people will come into contact with the police for many reasons growing up, and the relationship the police have with them with affect the effectiveness in reducing policing demand in the future by preventing them from becoming victims or offenders.

C&YP are referred to what's known as the YJS, which involves them being passed around various agencies for the support they need.

The YJS, however, has it's flaws and is often described as uneconomic, inefficient and ineffective. 

Various agencies that work within the YJS have different views on how to help youths, and therefore are poor at cooperating.

If one agency were to fail the youths, then the others will also fail, as good communication is the key.

The YJS has a new emphasis on inter-agency working, criminality pigs, early intervention, risk-based practice and managerialism.

The main goal of the YJS, according to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, is to "prevent offending by children and young persons."

A report titled the "child-centred policing stratagy (CCPS)" was published by the NPCC (2016), stating the crucial strategies that should be used when policing young people.

It stated that it is crucial that those below the age of 18 should be treated as children first when coming into contact with the police,

Engagement should be positive as all officers must have regard to the young persons safety, welfare and well-being as required in the Children Act 2004.

The NPCC recognise that it's unusual for a young person to be a serious offender without being a victim of circumstance and seek to help the young people in those circumstances by understanding they are vulnerable.

CCPS has become national strategy for policing C&YP and there has been four main areas identified as a priority.

The first is stop and search, which, if used improperly, can be harmful to the trust that young people have in the police.

The number of stop and searches of young people have dropped dramatically since 2008/9, showing that policing are beginning to have more trust in young people.

The NPCC reported that young people understand the need for stop and search, however it's not always clear why it is used, and that they want to be treated with respect and dignity.

However, the police believe that stopping young people means more interaction with them, which improve the relationship with young people, which is important to both the police and the public.

The second priority is children in care as they are over represented in the youth justice system, and statistics suggest they are two to three times more likely to offend that their peers.

Most children in care have a negative view on the police, this could simply be due to past experiences with their birth family.

The CCPS aims to avoid the unecessary criminalisation of children in care.

The third priority is custody, detention and criminalisation, where it is recognised that some young people are rightly detained for their offence, however, entering custody for the first can be a traumatic experience.

It is the police's job to ensure that young people are entering custody for all the right reasons, and if there is there is another, less traumatic option open, the the police should take that route.

This may be referring the child to another service who are more qualified to help them.

Finally, the engagement and relationship between young people and the police is a crucial aspect to child-centred policing.

It is one of the biggest challenges that local police deal with, and it is highly criticised if the engagement is not done right. 

The police need to understand what works well with C&YP so that the relationship can be built on good quality engagement initiatives and the police actually listening, and acting upon, to improve this service.

Communication and interaction is key to building and improving the relationship as C&YP want to be treated fairly, however they percieve that most of the time they are not.

Most local police forces now work within a multi-agency team, specifically in regard to young people.

Police work with what's called a YOT, and the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 places a duty of every chief officer to co-operate with local authority.

Further, the Act specifies that a YOT shall include at least one member of the police from their local force - e.g. LLR has two local police officers.

In 2014, policing roles were reviewed, and it is now highlighted that the role should include a two-way communication of intelligence between the YOT and local police.

Policing young people is very different to policing adults, as it is essential they are treated as a child first, then a vicrim before they are treated as a criminal.

It is essential that "every interaction is both an intervention and an opportunity," (NPCC, 2015).

There is more of a focus on other agencies that will help young people, rather than trying to clean the streets of young people.

In conclusion, the police are young people's first point of meeting if they have committed a crime, so it is essential that the police do not treat them like any adult criminal, but as a chld and as a victim of circumstance.

The police work mostly with YOTS to which they refer the child to should they need further support.

It is essential that the police treat young people with respect, as they feel they don't get treated like that, and listen to what young people want and need from the police. 

The four priority arwas of CCPS have been established as an attempt to build a relatioship with young people and to get them to gain their trust.