Articles | Girls committing more crime

Girls committing more crime

Published: Thursday, 15 May 2008, 9:46AM

The number of girls committing crime has jumped by a quarter in the last three years.

Official Home Office figures show girls are now more violent than boys up to the age of 17.

The statistics show girls committed 59,236 crimes in 2006/07, up 25 per cent from 47,358 in 2003/04.

This compares to a 2 per cent drop in crimes committed by boys over the same period, although young men still commit the majority of crimes.

The most common crimes committed by girls were theft, violent attacks, criminal damage and "public order" crimes.

Around 16,000 girls were found guilty of violent attacks and nearly 20,000 of theft and handling stolen goods. The figures show 180 were convicted of arson.

Nearly 1,000 girls were convicted of drug crimes, nearly 1,500 of motoring offences and 5,964 of public order crimes.

The authors found girls made up less than 10 per cent of those locked up for youth crimes despite being responsible for around 20 per cent of the crimes committed.

The report showed crimes were committed by children as young as ten but the bulk were carried out by boys in their late teens.

Academic Elaine Arnull of London's South Bank University, who prepared a report on the issue for the Youth Justice Board, suggested that the increase in girls offending may be due to changes in the way society deals with violence.

Most of the violent offences recorded were minor fights between girls, sometimes in school playgrounds, and it might be better if they were not dealt with by the youth justice system at all, she said.

Dr Arnull said: "It is not just that girls are going out and committing more offences. The population of girls has increased, so you would expect to see more offences.

"Also, we think that the response to girls by agencies - schools, police, other people - has changed, so girls are possibly being prosecuted for offences they weren't being prosecuted for before.

"It is fights between girls, principally - things like fights at school that the police weren't called to in the past.

"Most offending by girls, especially violent offending, is of a very low level. It doesn't mean it's insignificant, but it is hair-pulling fights between girls.

"Certainly we think that it would be better for it to be dealt with outside the youth justice system. It is important to stay calm about the figures.

"The bigger picture is that behaviour is changing and there is a link between girls using alcohol and violence - there is a change in behaviour, but it is not the dramatic change the figures might suggest."