LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Close to one in four children aged between 10 and 15 were victims of crime in England and Wales last year, the Home Office said on Thursday, in an attempt to gauge the size of the problem for the first time.
The figures, published in an extension of the British Crime Survey, found 2.1 million crimes of theft and violence were directed at under 16s — 24 percent of the child population. Incidents classed as crimes included the theft and smashing of children’s toys, playground fights and the pinching of dinner money, which was later returned.
Commissioned by the former Labour government, under pressure to uncover the extent of child crime, the report has taken two years to compile.
Researchers found that if all the incidents were added to annual crime figures, the total would soar by more than a fifth.
However, they warned that the new approach of classification risked skewing the figures as many people may not interpret them as real crimes. The number of alleged crimes dropped sharply, for example, if incidents at school were excluded.
Police Minister Nick Herbert said the new figures reinforced a long-standing belief that existing measures offered "either a partial or confused picture" about the level of offending.
"We need a common sense approach that recognises young people’s experiences so that we don’t criminalise children by failing to properly distinguish between playground spats and serious crime."
He said the government was looking at how crime statistics, including those affecting young people, should be collected and published in the future. A Home Office public consultation runs until September.
