Hundreds of children in Tayside and Fife are at serious risk of repeatedly offending as they continue to be “needlessly” criminalised as young as eight, an expert has warned.
Tam Baillie, Scotland’s commissioner for children and young people, was speaking as a Courier investigation revealed a total of 616 offences committed by children aged eight to 12 since the start of 2010.
These range from serious and indecent assault to more minor offences, such as vandalism and urinating in public.
Scotland has the lowest age of criminal responsibility in Europe and under original proposals outlined in the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill this would have been raised from eight to 12.
However, an amendment to the bill passed at the end of June means that while a child cannot be formally prosecuted for a crime committed under the age of 12, he or she can still have a criminal record for any crime committed over the age of eight.
This is despite the fact various UN recommendations suggest this figure should be closer to 14, or even 16.
Mr Baillie argued that findings by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research indicate that “criminalising children is exacerbating youth crime and children criminalised at an early age are likely to carry on offending.”
Although he “welcomed” the apparent downward trend in offences committed in Tayside and Fife by those in this age bracket the figure for 2008 as a whole was 2044 and in 2009 it was 1856 he repeated his call for the age of criminal responsibility to be brought in line with other European countries.Reduce offending in long runHe said, “Raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 12 years would not only reduce offending in the long run, it would avoid the criminal consequences for these children.
“This would not change the way in which children who commit serious offences are dealt with, but it would avoid needlessly criminalising those who may be guilty of nothing more than a playground scuffle.”
He added, “It is crucial that young children whose behaviour causes concern are dealt with in the appropriate manner, through the children’s panel hearing system which can address underlying causes, rather than label our children as criminals at a young age.”
In the period studied by The Courier, most crimes were committed by young people in Fife.
So far this year, there have been 366 recorded by Fife Constabulary in comparison to 250 by officers in Tayside.
In 2009, the figure was 1253 compared with 603 for Tayside, and in 2008 it was 1360 compared with 684.
This year’s figures included a nine-year-old who carried out an indecent assault at a school and two eight-year-olds who had in their possession “an article with a blade or a point” in public places, namely a street and a school.