Many children have records

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 5

Many children have records

By

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London

One third of Britain’s 14 million children have a criminal record before they reach the age of 18, according to a shock report this week. Glue-sniffing, heroin addiction, alcoholism, theft, and prostitution are all on the increase, in figures revealed in the annual survey conducted by the National Children’s Home, Children in Danger. A quarter of a million children were convicted in courts or received police cautioris for various offences last year, 5000 of them charged with drunkenness.

The report highlights increasing cruelty and neglect within families. More than 100,000 children are in care because

they have been ill-treated by parents. The home’s Director of Social Work, Mr Tom White, said: “Many thousands of the nation’s 14 million children do not grow up in happy, loving homes.” “Many are damaged by the sort of fear, violence and suffering that they would be banned from seeing on television or at the cinema.” The report reveals also that one child in eight lives in a family on or below the official supplementary benefit level. More than 500,000 young people aged under 19 are unemployed, 60,000 families are made homeless each year, and the number of drug addicts under 21 has quadrupled since 1979.