Young people meet with Chief Crown Prosecutor at CPS event
09/10/2012
A group of young people met recently with London's Crown Prosecution Service to look at how the CPS handled cases following the London disorder in August 2011.
The panel of young people, drawn from the British Transport Police (BTP) Young People's Independent Advisory Group, looked at finished cases from the disturbances of August 2011 as part of an event attended by the Chief Crown Prosecutor for London Alison Saunders, who listened to concerns that young people have and discussed potential solutions.
Alison said: "Events like this are excellent opportunities for the CPS and young people to share their perspectives and discuss how improvements can be made to our service - a service which must be connected to the communities we serve. It is vital that young people not only understand the work of the CPS but are able to engage constructively to influence it."
The event brought young people together to jointly look at case files, raise awareness amongst young people of how and why decisions are made by the CPS in the wake of the disorder, and to identify issues and trends in the CPS' decision making process; looking in particular at the impact of decision-making on cases involving young people.
A key point raised by the young people was that they had no knowledge of the use of Community Impact Statements (CIS). They felt they should be used more often but that young people's experiences should be included as they felt they were impacted by crime the most. BTP officer Keith Jarrett, who attended the meeting, said; “This is a valuable point raised by the young people and I will ask that it is raised at a future Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) meeting."
CPS London Policy Advisor Yvette Williams MBE said: “This was a fantastic event providing a worthwhile opportunity for us to meet with young people in London. The young people offered us a unique perspective, telling us what is important to young people in London today. This is the second event with young people that CPS London has held this year and we value regular communication with young people in the Capital.
"We hope that as a result of the work of this important youth panel, young people will be more confident to come forward to report crime, attend court as witnesses and Jurors and stay with the legal process until its conclusion. We hope that this coupled with what we have learnt from the young people today on how we handle cases will result in more successful prosecutions."
James, 20 years old, said: "A lot of the time young people are seen as the perpetrators of the riots and people think the riots didn't affect or impact on young people at all, but actually they affected young people the most."
21 year old Vanessa said: “Events like this bring us all one step further to getting it right."
Notes to editors:
1. The event was held at the London Headquarters of the Crown Prosecution Service in Southwark.
2. A Community Impact Statement is a short document compiled by the police, covering a set area and time period, and includes information about local communitycrime and disorder concerns, together with data on recorded crime and anti-social behaviour.
3. CPS London has a Scrutiny and Involvement Panel. For further information, click the "community engagement" link on this page.
