Report to the People
Crime and Reason?
In common with everyone of my generation, I was an angelic child. I never once went somewhere I shouldn’t, or gave cheek to an adult, or hung about in a gang. Neither did those who pen the lurid tales of "rampaging teenage thugs" in the tabloids. And while I’m at it, pigs can fly, the earth is flat and the BNP is an equal opportunities employer.
So, given the fact that very few of us led a completely blameless childhood, why do we feel that today’s young people are out of control? Is it, as someone recently asked me, really any worse than it used to be?
Well, yes and no.
Youth crime in Scotland is actually at a 30-year low. At the same time, though, there is a growing hardcore of young repeat offenders – the number who have committed ten or more crimes has gone up by 40% in the last ten years. The challenge, then, is not to demonise all young people, but to target the so-called "one boy crime-waves."
But how?
The number and range of people we brought together last week to discuss this complex issue with Deputy Justice Minister, Richard Simpson, underlined the key – getting all the players to work in partnership.
What, for example, is the point of teachers raising concerns about a particular pupil, if other agencies don’t follow it up? Or the point of the police catching offenders, if the authorities do not deal with them effectively? What’s the point of social workers trying to change young offenders’ behaviour, if the poverty, frustration and other root causes of their offending remain?
Daunting as the task is, however, we do not need to face it alone. Throughout the country, communities are asking themselves the same questions.
Could Children’s Panels be used to make young offenders face their victims? Should Anti-Social Behaviour Orders be more widely used to target problem families? Should we put more of Scotland’s record number of police officers on the beat? Or should we have them in cars to cut down response times? Should they really be chasing children through the streets anyway? Or should they be catching drug dealers, leaving Community Wardens or Special Constables to deal with the kids?
And we can learn from each other. How are other communities answering these hard questions, making these hard choices and helping people feel safe?
Sadly, there is no single, simple answer. But the wider we look for solutions, and the closer we co-operate in introducing them, the better our chance of cracking crime.
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