News In Focus
1 December 2006
Improvement team targets persistent offending rise
A team of youth justice professionals has begun work to try to improve the performance of the agencies responsible for tackling persistent youth offending.
The Youth Justice Improvement Team brings together experienced police and other professionals.
The move comes as quarterly figures from the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) show that 122 (15%) more young people qualified as persistent young offenders during July-September than over the same three months last year.
The quarterly figures from SCRA show that 5,828 children were referred to the reporter on offence grounds over the three months July to September - 25 fewer than the same quarter last year.
However, the number who qualified as persistent young offenders over the same period was up from 828 to 950. A persistent young offender is defined as someone who has offended five times in six months.
The Scottish Executive had set targets for agencies working in youth justice to reduce persistent youth offending by 10% by March 2006 and another 10% by 2008.
The improvement team is to visit each local authority over the next month to ensure agencies are addressing and reducing youth crime - focusing first on helping the areas with most still to do.
By the end of January, each local authority is to develop plans that make full use of all the resources provided.
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said: "Looking back from September this year to September last, I'm bitterly disappointed that the number of persistent young offenders rose again in half of Scotland's local authority areas.
"Rightly this is a concern to local people living in those council areas who understandably look to both local and central government actions to make a positive difference.
"And it can be done. Over the same period, persistent youth offender numbers have been cut in 10 local authority areas, showing how progress can be made with effective and co-ordinated action from the responsible agencies.”