Young people commit more than 600 offences

A paper by the borough’s youth offending team (YOT) shows that of the 612 offences, 108 were sexual, 198 were violence against a person and 95 were criminal damage.

The YOT, which works with youngsters aged ten to 17, reported that rates of serious youth violence had increased since 2018, but reduced during 2021.

“The actual numbers of serious youth violence offences by children in Rotherham are low and below Yorkshire and national comparison numbers,” it adds.

Zulfiqar Shaffi, youth justice service manager at RMBC said: “We have a specialist staff member who works with a charity that works around harmful sexual behaviour.

“It’s a specific kind of intervention and assessment which specialises the work around sexual offending.

Helen Sweaton, an assistant director in children’s services, added that sexual offences included indecent images, and were “not necessarily that we’ve got a significant proportion of young people who are offending physically in that category”.

The report adds that there was an increase in the number of youngsters under the YOT since the previous year — up from 353 to 489 — but offences had fallen significantly from 1157 to 612.