Youth justice news [12(1) 2012]

The imposition of curfews in cases involving children below the age of 18 years has become increasingly popular in the recent period. As indicated in Table 1, the number of curfew orders rose from 1293 in 2002/3 to 8367 in 2008/9, the last full year that such a disposal was available as a stand-alone order. Over the same period, curfews as a proportion of all sentences imposed also increased from 1.4 to 7.6 per cent. For offences committed after 30 November 2009, all existing community sentences for children were replaced by the youth rehabilitation order to which a range of requirements − including a curfew − could be attached. Figures for subsequent years are not accordingly available in a comparable format. However, in 2011/12, the total amount paid to contractors providing electronic monitoring services to the Ministry of Justice (in respect of both adults and children) stood at £116.9 million. Of those children sentenced to a curfew order during 2009/10, 67.6 per cent were reconvicted within a year, a recidivism rate higher than that for any other non-custodial youth disposal.