Government has ruled don't call Young offenders "Youths"

The Sunday Telegraph reports that the Government have ruled that Young offenders will no longer be called "youths" because it sounds too negative.

Official Government guidance goes further by ruling that the words “young person” or “young persons” must be used instead of young offender.

The change applies to paperwork for Youth Conditional Cautions, given out for minor crimes.

Officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Schools Department have deleted 101 uses of the words youth and youths in guidance to the Youth Justice Board and members of Youth Offending Teams.

However the names of the cautions, the board and the teams will not change.

Tory justice spokesman Dominic Grieve said: “Ministers have shown that they are more bothered about pandering to political correctness than coming down hard on crime and anti-social behaviour.”