Child arrests by Warwickshire Police reduced by 64 per cent

Arrests of children by Warwickshire Police have been reduced by 64 per cent since the Howard League for Penal Reform began a major campaign to keep boys and girls out of the criminal justice system, new figures reveal today (Monday December 14).

For the last decade, the Howard League has been working with police forces across England and Wales to reduce arrests of children, to help ensure that hundreds of thousands of boys and girls 'do not have their lives blighted by a criminal record'.

The charity’s latest research briefing, Child arrests in England and Wales 2019, published today, shows that there has been a 71 per cent reduction nationwide in the number of arrests of children aged 17 and under – from 245,763 in 2010 to 71,885 in 2019.

Every police force in England and Wales has achieved a reduction in arrests over this period, with all but three reducing their arrest rate by more than half.

Warwickshire Police made 511 arrests of children in 2019.

This compares to the 1,419 arrests recorded by the force back in 2010, when the Howard League campaign began.

Looking back at the last few years for Warwickshire Police, in 2016 there were 597 arrests, in 2017 there were 447 arrests and 411 in 2018.

Now the Howard League is encouraging police forces to build on this and focus on areas where even more could be done to prevent children being arrested unnecessarily – particularly Black children and children from minority ethnic backgrounds, victims of child criminal exploitation, and children living in residential care.

Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Every child deserves the chance to grow and fulfil their potential, and we must do all we can to ensure that they are not held back by a criminal record.

“The Howard League’s programme to reduce child arrests has shown what can be achieved by working together.

"Police forces have diverted resources to tackling serious crime instead of arresting children unnecessarily, and this means hundreds of thousands of boys and girls can look forward to a brighter future.

“After a successful decade spent embedding good practice across England and Wales, the challenge now is to keep up the momentum and reduce arrests still further. The Howard League will continue to support forces to make communities safer and allow more children to thrive.”

The figures published today reveal that, after eight successive years of significant reductions, the number of child arrests in England and Wales remained low in 2019, increasing only slightly from the 70,482 recorded in 2018.

Seven police forces recorded reductions of 10 per cent or more in 2019: Cambridgeshire (11 per cent); Derbyshire (10 per cent); Durham (27 per cent); Kent (13 per cent); Merseyside (12 per cent); Northamptonshire (15 per cent); and Nottinghamshire (10 per cent)

The largest police force, the Metropolitan Police, made 14,183 arrests of children in 2019. This was a three per cent rise on the previous year, when 13,791 arrests were made, but a 69 per cent reduction on 2010, when there were 46,079.

Although 22 police forces, including Warwickshire Police, recorded increases in child arrests between 2018 and 2019, their numbers were much lower than when the Howard League’s campaign began in 2010.

A significant number of forces reported that the rise was believed to be, at least in part, related to operations to tackle county lines. Instead of being treated as victims, some children are being arrested because they are suspected of having committed crimes as a result of their exploitation by others.

The Howard League said addressing this problem will be a key challenge for forces over the next few years.

The charity also said that a lack of experience and training of frontline officers also appears to be a significant issue.

The data reveal continued inequalities for Black children and children from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The charity said government figures show that Black children are more than four times as likely as white children to be arrested. The proportion of white children arrested has fallen by 13 per cent over the last 10 years, while the proportion of Black children arrested has doubled to 16 per cent.

The Howard League said the disproportionate impact of the criminal justice system on Black children and children from minority ethnic backgrounds increases as they move through it, resulting in huge disparities in the numbers held on remand and serving sentences in child prisons.

The charity asked police forces to break down their child arrest figures by age, gender and ethnicity, and the ethnicity breakdown was revealing: data recording was inconsistent and there were huge gaps as a result of failure to record ethnicity for large numbers of children who had been arrested. In 2019, there was no record of ethnicity for more than 5,000 child arrests.

Warwickshire Police have been contacted for a comment.