Re-offending rates in Cambridge on the increase
More than 1,000 crimes were committed by previous offenders in Cambridge last year.
The latest figures come as the probation watchdog says criminals sentenced to short prison terms are locked in a “merry-go-round” that costs billions of pounds a year. Ministry of Justice data shows that, of the 933 offenders in Cambridge who were released from prison, received a non-custodial conviction at court, or were cautioned by police between July 2016 and June 2017, 268 went on to reoffend within a year. Between them, they committed 1,241 new offences. They had each committed an average of 20.8 crimes previously.
The rate of reoffending was even higher among juvenile offenders – 27 of the 80 under-18s went on to commit another crime within a year of being released from custody, given a non-custodial sentence or cautioned.