Saturday May 12, 2007

Tom Biggins, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Telford, expressed his deep concern at new figures exposing the true extent of youth-on-youth crime. The shocking statistics were obtained by Justine Greening MP, the Conservative Youth Spokesman, under the Freedom of Information Act.

• Across the country, a third of all muggings last year were on 11 to 16 year olds. They are seen as easy targets by muggers seeking mobile phones and MP3 players. In turn, 11 to 16 year olds were responsible for 40 per cent of all robberies.
• The government, despite claiming street crime is a top priority, does not properly monitor the level of youth muggings.
• There were a projected 113,000 robberies on 11 to 16 year olds last year in England and Wales. This is equivalent to over 600 muggings a day for each of the 195 school days.

 

Tom Biggins said: “These new statistics reveal a worrying area of crime that has gone unrecognised and this is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg.

“Secondary school pupils and their parents will immediately recognise the picture of life these crime figures paint. Having mobiles and ipods routinely stolen, being marched to the cashpoint, seeing their friends mugged – this is the everyday life for too many teenagers.

“This can be a nasty crime that leaves the victim very frightened and upset,” he pointed out.

“Youth-on-youth crime could be a serious long-term problem and the government is not properly monitoring it. I believe passionately that young people have a right to expect violent crime against them to be taken seriously by the government.”

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