Criminal caution and conviction rates for children who were supported at different tiers of the care system and those who had a special educational need

Objectives

The presentation will give an overview of a project exploring criminal justice system outcomes for children who were supported at different tiers of the care system, detailing local authority differences in outcomes, and differences for children who also had a special educational need. The presentation will include sharing the data dashboard and other practice and policy facing outputs from this project.

Method

The data used was the linkage between the NPD and PNC covering birth years 1995-1998. The analyses were multilevel and multivariate logistic regression models. Care system involvement was the highest tier of intervention recorded in the data, from referral only, child in need, child protection plan, and looked after child. Analysis was for any criminal caution or conviction, and custodial sentences.

Results

Children with any involvement with the care system are 2-4 times more likely to have a criminal caution or conviction by early adulthood, compared to children outside of the care system.