9 young offenders out of ten who were the subject of a divestiture reoffend. Thirteen years later, they have on average 9 convictions. A third has already spent half their adult life in prison. This is what was discovered during an inquest done by An Nuytiens and Yana Jaspers, from the Vrije Brussels University (VUB), De Standaard reported Monday. They examined all the divestiture files from 1999 to 2001 for the area surrounding Anvers, Mons, Brussels, Charleroi and Maines,corernning 210 young people.
“Divestiture does not mean the end of the judicial process. 9 out of 10 no longer have a blank criminal record. The number of convictions varies from one to 32, with an average of 9”, says An Nuytiens.
The researchers also looked into nature of what the young adults were convicted for, taking the last ruling into account. Theft is the most frequent crime (38.4%). Murders and rapes represent 9.3%.
(Source: Belga)
