The amount of people between the ages of 10 and 17 years old either on suspicion or charged with crimes has more than halved over the last decade, according to ministry figures.

Law infringement numbers have dropped every year since 2006, says the report – a decrease in raw numbers from 25,125 in 2006 to 11,487 in 2016.

Between 2015 and 2016 there was only a one percent decrease, however.

The most marked fall in youth crime rates took place during the years up to 2013.

A reduction in the number of first-time young offenders is a key reason for the positive development, says the ministry.

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For 10-14 year-olds, the number put under suspicion by police dropped by 72 percent between 2006 and 2016. The figure for the 15-17 year age group stood at a 46 percent decrease.

Source: Justitsministeriet

There was a slight increase in boys suspected or charged with crimes between 2015 and 2016, however – a one percent rise offset by a drop of 19 percent for girls in the same classification.

Crimes committed by boys consist primarily of break-ins, violence and threatening behaviour, while the most common crime for girls was theft.

“It is well known that a large number of crimes are committed by young people. It is particularly in the formative years between child and adulthood that young people get drawn into criminality. We must prevent this, because criminal behaviour at an early age can lead to an existence in the shadows of society. So it is encouraging to see that, again, this year there are fewer of our young people starting on the road to crime,” wrote justice minister Søren Pape Poulsen in the ministry’s press statement.

The government is expected to announce a new initiative to further combat youth crime using ‘focused initiatives’, the minister added.

The full version of the report can be found here.

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