Quarter of British children say commit crime

LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) A quarter of young Britons admitted carrying out a crime in the last year ranging from drug dealing to serious assault, according to a government survey.

The Home Office report found that 25 per cent of those aged 10 to 25 in England and Wales said they had committed at least one offence in the last 12 months, although many were said to have carried out only a relatively trivial crime according to the survey pubished yesterday.

However, 16 per cent admitted carrying out an assault, 11 per cent confessed to thieving and seven percent were described as frequent offenders -- those who had committed six or more offences.

The report said 13 per cent of all 10 to 25-year-olds had committed a serious offence such as an assault with injury, mugging, car theft, burglary or selling drugs.

Those involved in drug dealing were said to be the biggest repeat offenders while one per cent frequently committed serious offences.

Young men were more likely to have committed crime than young women, according to the survey of more than 4,400 people which excluded those in prison and young offenders institutions.

With fears about a culture of knife crime a prominent political issue in Britain, the report found that four per cent of young people carried a knife, with 85 percent of those who did so saying it was for protection.

REUTERS PB ND0912