Childhood criminal offences: time for a distinct system

On Tuesday 10 September, Unlock hosted a roundtable event to discuss the issues of childhood criminal offences and the impact they have on individuals’ criminal records. 

The youth justice system is different from the wider criminal justice system, with distinct aims and principles around child welfare and reducing reoffending.

But criminal records for childhood offences are handled under the same regime as offences committed by adults. The only distinction being that childhood offence are subject to shorter spending periods. 

This means that the aims of the youth justice system – focusing on the wellbeing of the child – can be undermined by the realities of the punitive criminal records regime. Children have a right to avoid the stigma of a criminal record following them long into adulthood, but the current system means childhood offences may be disclosed for the rest of their adult lives. 

Finding solutions

At Unlock, we believe there is a need for a distinct criminal records system to handle childhood offences. 

The roundtable brought together experts from across the justice sector, academia and beyond to discuss the negative impact of the current system and to consider our proposed solutions. It was fantastic to gather such a broad range of perspectives, and to have engagement from the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.

Proposing change

Building on the feedback and discussion from the roundtable, we are developing detailed proposals for a distinct childhood criminal records system. We will be sharing these in the coming months.