System saves robbers not victims

London has been gripped by a teenage crimewave that has seen street robberies soar to more than 50,000 a year - but the criminal justice system of police, courts, prisons, probation and new youth offending teams has a miserable record of failure in catching, punishing and reforming the muggers.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf sent a clear signal recently that cases of mobile phone robbery involving violence should always end in a jail term, even for first time offenders. But the judgement, designed to reassure the public and send a warning to young criminals, disguises the fact that typically nearly nine out of 10 robberies will never even lead to court.

As our analysis of police detection rates revealed yesterday, the police managed to make arrests in scarcely one in 10 robbery cases last year. But even when a case gets to court, the systems currently in place are failing to save society from crime. An amazing 60 per cent of robbery cases against juveniles in London collapse or end in acquittal and just 14 per cent lead to a prison term.

Britain spends £1 billion a year trying to deal with the consequences of seven million youth crimes, the Audit Commission says, yet 80 per cent of all convicted juveniles are back in trouble, with fresh convictions, inside two years.

The Youth Justice Board, created in 1998 to make sense of the mess, is pushing ahead with some imaginative new ideas that aim to get a grip on the most prolific offenders, nip fledgling criminal careers in the bud, involve parents in turning children around, and combine punishment with real attempts to change behaviour.

For hundreds of young London criminals that will mean their movements are tracked all day and they will be under curfew all night. For others, like Fabio Coelho, the youth from the Woodberry Down estate opposite, projects like Groundwork Hackney are trying to make a difference by attempting to turn 150 high-risk children away from crime. In the project's three years of operation, only three per cent of participants have reoffended. Activities offered include career guidance, sport, drug awareness, and numeracy and literacy skills.

There is no doubt the Youth Justice Board is driving through a revolution in the justice system, and it is true to say police, schools, councils, probation officers, courts and the prisons are working together as never before with the single aim of preventing crime. But there is a vast gulf between the ambitions and the present reality.

Home Office analysis shows a total of 1,782 children aged 10 to 17 went to court for robbery offences during 2000. But well-documented failings in the prosecution process meant 1,077 cases were either withdrawn, dismissed or ended in not guilty verdicts - cases collapse because witnesses fail to turn up, evidence is weak or courts lose patience with Crown Prosecution Service delays. A south-west London magistrate, Jonathan Myerson, vividly describes the problems on the facing page.

Of the 705 convictions, most led to community sentences, which can include orders to repair damage or pay compensation. A total of 258 ended in immediate custody. The length of each sentence is not clear, but national prison service figures show that most convicted young robbers get surprisingly tough jail terms - 44 per cent are sentenced to between three and 10 years, a further 36 per cent get 18 months to three years, 11 per cent between one year and 18 months, and the remaining 10 per cent get sentences of less than a year.