Rise In Persistent Young Offenders Masks Success

The number of youngsters in Fife continually getting into trouble with the law has risen. Latest figures show that the number of persistent young offenders in the region rose by 28 to 78 in the year 2005-06. But with more diversionary tactics and a step up in direct action by the police and voluntary agencies involved with young people, the rise has been put down to more hard graft and an increase in the reporting of crime.

The figures released by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration revealed that, throughout Scotland 1388 persistent young offenders were recorded in 2005-06, a rise of 10 per cent on the previous years figures, and up 16 per cent on the 2003-04 figure.

Justice minister, Cathy Jamieson had set a reduction target of 10 per cent in young offenders by March this year.

Councillor Andrew Keddie, chairman of the community safety committee, which includes Fife Police and Fife Council, said: “These figures seem to highlight an increasing trend in persistent offending but what they really show is the hard work that Fife Police has been doing to cut crime and to specifically target the kind of low-level, anti-social behaviour which is causing so much concern in our communities.

“We need to focus on the positives here, which are that through various police initiatives these young offenders are being caught and dealt with and once they are dealt with their anti-social behaviour is being nipped in the bud.

“Our figures show that with effective policing and firm support systems in place we can catch these young people at a critical time and set them back on the straight and narrow. There’s clear evidence that effective intervention is having a positive impact in Fife and the levels of re-offending by Persistent Young Offenders has dropped significantly.”

A number of initiatives are now in place to address these issues, such as the introduction of a formal juvenile warning scheme and tiered response to offenders – that is an escalation process for dealing with repeat offenders. The number of young people who continue to offend after they have been referred to Social Work Services is one of the lowest in Scotland.

“The introduction of these proposals should reduce formal police contact with children, viewing crime in the context of the child therefore reducing crime, improve communications between partner agencies and reduce the requirement for the submission of police crime reports,” added Councillor Keddie.