Child Arrests In North Wales Drop By 68% In Five Years

New figures have revealed that the arrests of children across England and Wales has fallen by 59% in the past five years.

Figures released today by The Howard League for Penal Reform show that 129,274 child arrests were made in 2013 compared to the 318,053 made across England and Wales in 2008.

Overall in 2008 the total number of child arrests was the equivalent to an arrest every 99 seconds. In total, police made more than 1.3million arrests of children between January 2008 and December 2013.

The full breakdown of figures across England and Wales can be found listed below:

2008: 318,053

2009: 282,077

2010: 246,480

2011: 206,402

2012: 149,983

2013: 129,274

Last year, police in England and Wales made 129,274 arrests of children aged 17 and under. These included 1,107 arrests of children who were aged 10 or 11, meaning that on average three primary school-age children were arrested every day.

In North Wales this year’s figure stands at 68%, with 1780 children arrested last year. This is an overall reduction of 3779 arrests, compared to the 5559 made in North Wales in 2008.

Across Wales overall 5,559 arrests were made in 2008, 4,567 in 2009, 3,420 in 2010; 2,596 in 2011, 2,022 in 2012 and 1,780 in 2013.

A total of 18,805 arrests were made across Wales in 2008, this is in comparison to the 7,759 in 2013.

Chief Inspector Ian Jones who is responsible for the management of the police custody units across north Wales said: “This significant and welcomed reduction in North Wales is due to a number of factors including effective Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour reduction plans, investment in front-line policing, continued effective partnership working with the Welsh Government, local authorities, youth criminal justice services, the wider voluntary sector, changes in legislation and greater use of proportionate out-of-court disposals such as community resolutions.”

Chief Inspector Jones added: “The arrest of a child or young person is an absolute last resort and we will continue to work tirelessly with the Welsh Government, the Youth Justice Board and other key service providers to seek further opportunities to reduce first time entrants into the criminal justice system and break the cycle of those already within it.”