More youths added to database each day

TWENTY-TWO young offenders from Yorkshire are added to the national crime database every day after getting into trouble with the police for the first time.

Government figures reveal that 8,146 of the region's 10 to 17-year-olds received their first reprimand, warning or conviction between April 2008 and March 2009.

The number was even higher in 2007-08, when almost 10,800 young people had their details added to the Police National Computer.

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Council teams aimed at stopping youth offending stepped up their work after first-time entrants to the criminal justice system soared by 41 per cent in only five years, from 8,968 in 2002-03 to 12,634 in 2006-07.

Every local authority in Yorkshire saw a rise during that period, with the most dramatic increases reported in Calderdale (70 per cent), Kirklees (60), Rotherham (53), Wakefield (50) and Barnsley (45).

Last year, a third of Yorkshire's first-time offenders came from Leeds, Sheffield or Bradford. North Yorkshire, including York, accounted for almost one in seven cases.

The drop in first-time offenders last year was seen across England, where the number of cases fell by more than a fifth.

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Youth Justice Board chairwoman Frances Done said it was due to the success of a number of schemes aimed at recognising potential youth crime problems before they occur.

"The future offers even more scope to achieve better outcomes for young people who offend, their victims, parents and communities."