Scheme that cut youth crime now ‘key priority’

A SCHEME that has helped to cut youth crime by a fifth could be used to try to reverse the rise in female offending, justice secretary Kenny MacAskill has said.

In Aberdeen, police, courts, education and social services have been working together to tackle minor offending before it becomes a major problem.

Mr MacAskill said establishing the “whole system” approach in the rest of Scotland was now a “key priority”.

But he also suggested that the same method could be used to reduce the number of female offenders.

The justice secretary said: “Whole systems is exactly the direction of travel we want to take on female offenders, with police, courts, education and social services working together to address all aspects of problem behaviour. This has worked with youngsters; we can make it work with women.”

The number of women in prison has more than doubled in the past decade. A report by the former Lord Advocate, Dame Elish Angiolini, QC, this week called for the only all-female prison, Cornton Vale in Stirling, to be demolished to make way for specialist units.

In Aberdeen, the “whole system” approach saw youth crime fall by 20 per cent between 2008-9 and 2010-11, when 4,623 crimes and offences were committed by young people, compared with 5,875.

Meanwhile, the number of youths committing crimes has been reduced by 23 per cent from 2006-7, with 3,352 of those aged eight to 17 committing crimes and offences in 2010-11.

The number of youngsters referred to the Children’s Reporter because of offences has dropped by 48 per cent in the past two years.

Mr MacAskill said: “The pilot has been a great success, and a key priority is to roll this approach out across Scotland.”