Kids as young as 11 arrested, despite overall youth crime drop

Monday 09 March 2015

Police have arrested children as young as 11 for offences including arson, assault, malicious damage and breach of the peace in the last few years, new figures show.

Despite the continuing low overall level of youth crime, stats for the youngest people arrested over the last five years show that children as young as 11 or 12 have been picked up by the police for a wide range of offences.

The figures have been released to Bailiwick Express under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law. They show that five 11-year-olds were arrested between 2010 and 2014, and that at least 21 12-year-olds were arrested over the same period.

Six months ago, the Home Affairs department revealed figures showing that crime among under-18s is at just a fraction of the level a few years ago. There were just 31 youth cases in the first six months of 2014, compared to 253 in 2010.

And the number of offences has also stayed low, with 107 in the first six months of last year compared to 522 in 2010.

But today’s figures show that young children have been arrested in Jersey in relation to serious offences.

The age of criminal responsibility in Jersey is ten – below that age, children are not held to be responsible for criminal acts.

Most of the offences by youngsters were for offences such as vandalism or shoplifting, but in 2013 two 12-year-olds were arrested for robbery and there have been four arrests of youngsters for arson in the last five years.