Youths – sentencing II (the sentences)

Question 1

What are the different types of sentences for youths?

Answer 1

1. Absolute or conditional discharge and reparation orders for the least serious offences.
2. Financial Orders (fines)
3. A referral order is the mandatory sentence in a youth court or magistrates court for most children and young people who have committed an offence for the first time and have pleaded guilty to an imprisonable offence.
4. Community orders are called youth rehabilitation orders (YRO). The offence must be ‘serious enough’ in order to impose a YRO.
5. Custodial sentences are called detention and training orders (DTO) and can only be imposed if the statutory threshold has been passed.

Question 2

What are the non-custodial sentences available and what are their minimum and maximums

Answer 2

• Youth rehabilitation orders (no statutory minimum, maximum 36 months)
• Referral orders (minimum 3 months, maximum 12 months)
• Reparation orders; and
• Orders against parents e.g. binding the parents over or making a parenting order.

Question 3

Explain a youth rehabilitation order

Answer 3

*These fall within the community orders band.

*Before a YRO can be passed the court must be satisfied that the offence is “serious enough” to warrant it although the offence does not have to be imprisonable.

*Courts are able to select from a wide range of sentences and tailor interventions to suit the particular offender.

*YROs can be used a number of times.

Question 4

What youth rehabilitation order requirements are only available for young people aged 16 or 17?

Answer 4

1. Unpaid work; and
2. Residence requirement.

Question 5

When can the intensive supervision and surveillance requirement and fostering requirement be imposed?

Answer 5

These requirements can only be imposed if the offence is an imprisonable one AND the custody threshold has been passed. For children and young people aged under 15 they must be deemed a persistent offender.