New measures to tackle youth offending

Community Safety Minister also proposes changes to recording of persistent offender information

News, 11 July 2007

The Scottish Executive is to bring in measures aimed at reducing youth offending.

The Minister for Community Safety Fergus Ewing announced today that the new measures will focus on reducing the volume, frequency and seriousness of offending as well as increasing communities' confidence that action is being taken to address this behaviour.

Figures released today by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration show that the new government inherited a 3% rise in the number of persistent young offenders last year - defined as a young person with five or more referrals to the Children's Reporter in a six-month period - continuing the upward trend of recent years.

In 2002 the then administration set a target to reduce the number of persistent young offenders by 10% by March 2006 and a further 10% by March 2008.

Targets not met

The target to 31 March 2006 was not met. The number of persistent young offenders increased nationally by 16% between 2003/04 and 2005/06 from 1,201 to 1,388. The data for 2006-07 shows a continuing rise in numbers. The number of persistent young offenders increased nationally by a further 3% from 1388 to 1429.

Mr Ewing said he would be bringing in a new way of capturing the information about youth offending to help the government and agencies involved provide better services to deal with it.

Mr Ewing said: "I have looked at the persistent young offender target and I don't think it really addresses the issues or captures the right information. The focus is far too narrow and it tells us more about the habits of the adults referring young people to the hearings system than the behaviour of young people themselves.

"It makes no distinction between minor offences and more serious ones. Under this method petty vandalism is treated the same as a serious assault. We need to take all types of offending seriously, and to do this we need good quality information. I simply don't believe this collects the information we need to help us tackle youth offending and antisocial behaviour.

"That's why I'm going to bring in a new system to give a much more rounded picture - one that will help the Scottish government and local agencies to really help the young people who are offending or are in danger of falling into a pattern of offending."

The new methodology will take into account changes in the volume, frequency and seriousness of youth offending.

Disproportionate use

Sandra Paterson, deputy convener of the Association of Directors of Social Work's Children and Families Standing Committee, said: "The impact of the persistent young offender target has been that it lumps together young people who have committed very minor offences with those who have carried out serious offences.

"This has resulted in a disproportionate use of resources. In addition, there is evidence to show that if you intervene too heavily and too early in response to lower levels of offending, it can lead to increased offending in the long-run.

"ADSW welcomes the minister's proposals to clearly distinguish between the needs of young people who are involved in low level disorder as well as those who are concerned with more serious offending."