148: Police response to youth offending around the generation and distribution of indecent images of children and its implications

Professor Andy Phippen, University of Bournemouth and Professor Emma Bond, University of Suffolk (2020).

A summary of a study exploring the arrest and crime recording of minors in the UK for the generation or distribution of indecent images of children, under the 1978 Protection of Children Act. A series of FOIA requests were sent to UK police forces asking for figures on the volume of arrests of minors under Home Office crime code 86/2, and also the number of outcome 21 recordings made against minors related to image offences, since December 2016. 30 police forces sent responses and the data were collated for the two categories (Home Office Crime code 86/2 and outcome 21) over the specified time period. Trends in the data were examined.