SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

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Review of Youth Crime: Finding out what young people think

In Scotland today, there is a lot of concern about children and young people who are getting into trouble because they break the law. The Scottish government wants to find out the best ways to help people stay out of trouble in the first place, and get out of trouble if they have been charged with offences.

We already know quite a lot about "youth crime" in Scotland:

• the victims of crimes committed by children and young people are often other children and young people;
• each crime costs about our community an average of £2000 – that’s money that won’t be there to spend on things like education, housing, leisure and recreation, health services, jobs and other opportunities;
• every crime has at least one victim – maybe an elderly person who is robbed of confidence as well as a handbag, or a shopkeeper who loses money through shoplifting or a car owner whose insurance premium is put up after his car gets broken into, or a Council who have to board up a block of flats because the windows are getting smashed and there’s broken glass all over the place. You can probably think of lots of other examples.
• most young people do not get into trouble or, if they do, only do it once.
• but some young people who get into a lot of trouble often find it very difficult to settle down, to get jobs, to keep in touch with people who are important to them. They are more at risk of ending up in prison and more at risk of doing things which hurt themselves and others.

So it is very important to find good ways of helping young people change "patterns of persistent offending".

We are asking local authorities, health boards, police officers, sheriffs, panel members, voluntary organisations and many other people to help us find solutions. We’d also like your help.

As adults, we don't always appreciate young people's difficulties. We need to hear from you so that we can learn what problems need to be tackled, and what you think needs to be done. We want to know what you think about what helps to keep young people out of trouble or stay out of trouble. If you’ve never broken the law, what has helped you to stay out of trouble? If you have been in trouble, have you managed to change and what helped? If you’re still in trouble, who or what could make a difference?

If you have any ideas, let us know by sending us a message at youth.crimereview@Scotland.gov.uk or writing to Rachel Burn, Room 26c, James Craig Walk, Edinburgh EH1 3BA.

We will be collecting all the different views and ideas we get as a result of this consultation exercise and using them to try to build up a good picture of ‘what works best’. A report will then be written and this will be given to Sam Galbraith, the Minister for Children and Education for him to consider. We hope to finish the Report by the end of February 2000, so we have very little time to do a lot of work. Although we might quote from your response, we will not give your name or anything which would identify you personally. You don’t have to leave your name if you don’t want to.

We cannot help you with any problems you might be having right now, so if there is something which is worrying you – if you’ve been the victim of a crime committed by another young person or if you’re at risk of getting into trouble – contact someone you trust who will be able to help and advise you. You might want to talk to someone at home, a teacher or social worker or community worker, or call Childline at 0141 552 1123.

Once we have finished the Report, a summary will be posted on this Web site.

Thanks for reading the site so far. We hope that you will let us know what you think and that we can all work together to find solutions to help solve problems that affect all of us right now and reduce them for the future.

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