Youth crime: 'The problem shows little sign of abating'

IT is almost three years since the News first revealed that a handful of feral youngsters were responsible for an astonishing 1,600 crimes in the Edinburgh area. Despite promises to tackle the problem, it shows little sign of abating.

Today we reveal that in the past year ten people under the age of 16 have between them committed more than 400 offences – and police admit that in reality they may be responsible for ten times that number.

In the last three years juveniles – including some aged ten and under – have been deemed responsible for a staggering 2,380 offences. These include assault, possession of an offensive weapon and racially aggravated conduct, all of which makes a nonsense of the government's target of reducing youth crime by ten per cent.

Indeed the trend appears to be going the wrong way, with the latest figures showing youth crime in Scotland is on the increase rather than falling.

While loss of liberty is far from the answer in every case, it is inevitable that many of those who have chosen to embark on a life of crime at such a tender age will end up behind bars.

Many are already beyond the stage of being tagged teenage delinquents and have graduated into hardened criminals.

Incarcerating older teenage offenders is relatively simple as there is no shortage of secure accommodation. But the authorities have been lax in providing secure places to house those under the age of 16. Edinburgh has little more than a handful of places available.

This often leaves the Children's Reporter with no choice other than to return them to their homes – and allow them to continue terrorising their neighbourhoods. This offers no protection for previous victims and serves as no deterrent to other offenders.

Locking them all up is not always the answer, as the high rate of recidivism shows. For many, only early intervention stands a chance of redirecting them from a path of habitual crime. But for others, it is already too late.

So if the government is serious about cracking down on youth crime it has no choice other than to remove the worst offenders from society.

It appears willing to invest in more spaces in adult prisons but seems reluctant to provide more secure places for juveniles. Of course, it will surely need those adult spaces if it allows the growth in juvenile crime to go unchecked.

If the authorities genuinely want to make communities safer and better places to live they must find better ways of dealing with those destined to become career criminals.

In the first instance it must provide more teenage accommodation to remove the worst of this new breed of hardened criminals from the streets.