Only a tiny minority of children aged below 10 are involved in criminal activity. In 2024 officers in Thanet dealt with 14 offences carried out by children aged nine and below.
These included eight violence against a person complaints, with two resulting in injury to the victim; three sexual assaults against a female aged under 13; two public order offences and one criminal damage complaint.
The figure is a huge drop on the 44 under 10’s investigated by police in Thanet in 2020.
Any child under the age of 10 is below the age of criminal responsibility and so is deemed unable to commit a crime or be subjected to any criminal proceedings.
However, there are inventions that can be used such as restorative justice -when offenders are encouraged to reach an agreement with their victims, which could be done through writing a letter of apology or repairing any damage caused 0 welfare checks, referrals to social services or child protection, a Local Child Curfew or a Child Safety Order.
Detective Superintendent Nicola Ross, of Kent Police’s Public Protection Command, said: “The age of criminality as recognised by law is 10 years old and on the rare occasions when an offence is committed by a child under that age, officers consider a wide range of options to ensure the appropriate safeguarding measures are in place.
“Working with relevant partner agencies including Social Services and schools, Kent Police’s dedicated Child Centred Policing Teams will assess each individual and their circumstances. Steps will then be taken to provide support for the child and divert them from future offending.”
Local Child Curfew
The police can ban children from being in a public place between 9pm and 6am, unless accompanied by an adult. This is called a Local Child Curfew and can last for up to 90 days. If a child breaks their curfew, they can be given a Child Safety Order.
Child Safety Order
If a child has committed an offence or broken a Local Child Curfew, they can be placed under the supervision of a youth offending team. This is called a Child Safety Order.
The order normally lasts for up to 3 months, but in some cases it can last for up to 12 months.
If a child doesn’t stick to the rules of an order, the court can consider if the child should be taken into care.
Parents could also be held responsible and be asked to attend a parenting programme; sign a Parenting Contract or given a Parenting Order by a court
Parenting programmes
Parenting programmes are run by the local youth offending team and other youth justice organisations or charities.
Parenting Contracts
This is a voluntary agreement signed by the parent, child and someone from the local youth offending team.
They all agree to play a part in helping the child stay away from crime.
Parenting Orders
These are given out by the court. It sets out things the parent and child must or must not do. They can last for up to 12 months.
Getting a Parenting Order does not mean a parent gets a criminal record, but they can be taken to court if they do not obey the order.
Young people investigated for offences
In the run up to the summer holidays, Broadstairs, and to a lesser degree Margate and Ramsgate, were plagued with antisocial behaviour with much of the trouble caused by young people.
Issues were mainly lower-level public order and street drinking offences although there were some escalations into assault and criminal damage.
Police deployed dispersal orders and stop and search powers to help deal with the incidents, later drafting in officers from other Kent districts to bring the disturbances under control.
Despite the prominent visibility of the recent antisocial behaviour and the perception of young people committing crimes, under 18s actually only account for a small percentage of overall arrests across the county.
In 2023/24, Kent Police made 20,892 arrests and 1,577 of these were young people aged 10 to 17.
The greatest number of arrests for young people aged 10-17 (453) were for violence against a person.
Theft (324) and criminal damage and arson (156) were the next most frequent offences, followed by robbery (143) sexual offences (134), drugs (126) possession of weapons (97), public order (80), ‘crimes against society’ (58) and fraud (6).
The dispersal orders in Thanet towns, which have been enacted since last month, give police extra powers to move people out of the area.
These powers cannot be used against anyone under the age of criminal responsibility, which in England is 10.
What is being done in Thanet to divert young people from crime?
In Thanet organisations such Pie Factory Music, Arts Education Exchange, The Pavilion youth and community café and People Dem Collective work with young people to nurture talent, provide activities and life skills.
Arts Education Exchange caters for children as young as six and focuses on young people who are: not in education or not in full time education, care experienced, neurodivergent, asylum seeking, LGBTQ+, and young people marginalised in other ways and/or with lived experience of trauma.
People Dem Collective works with young people from Black, Brown and Diaspora communities from the ages of five to 25.
Pie Factory Music specialises in working with young people from 11 to 25 who face challenges in their lives, such as poverty, emotional and mental health struggles and those who struggle to engage with mainstream provision.
The Pavilion offers sports and games, arts and crafts, well-being support, trips out, residentials, and accredited awards including Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Arts Awards. They provide after-school youth sessions 4 afternoons per week, and a full holiday programme each summer and cater for youngsters aged five to 16.
Millmead Community Centre offers support for individuals and families with children from birth upwards.
People Dem Collective works with young people from Black, Brown and Diaspora communities from the ages of five to 25.
So the People Dem Collective are openly discriminatory?
Badly written article? Poorly worded realease from PDC? Or accurate depiction of their attitudes?
People from other communities are welcomed if they share their values and goals, but from the toke of your post I don’t think you do.
Are you equally concerned that Men’s Sheds are aimed at men, or that the WI is for women?
I was questioning the wording in the article which is blatantly discriminatory and exclusionary in nature. To understand where it came from i gave some options that maybe explained it.
Comparison with Mens Shed and WI is disengenuous, they both offer activites that are aimed at different groups who by and large have relatively little interest in the other. Just as many sports have men and womens classifications for good reason.
Where as given the article is about reducing youth crime it seems unlikely that the groups identified as being those worked with by PDC will have interests and activities very much different to any other young person and as such restricting those they work with would further reinforce separations in society and the frictions this creates.
You think men and women have little interest in each other? How bizarre.
Men’s sheds and WI are examples of activities for people who share characteristics and interests and who want to communicate and spend time with people who share at least some of their experiences.
If you don’t object to this for men and women, and agree with segregated sport, you clearly can understand that there are times when groups who share characteristics wish to be together with each other.
You are being deliberately stupid.
The wording is from their own website.
This is just about the limited abilities of the police farce, dealing with nasty nine-year-olds (when they’re not arresting racist grandmothers). All the rest of the time they’re invisible. Give a policeman a REAL task and they’ll be stumped.
What racist grandmas ?