Statistics published by the Scottish Police and SCRA (Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration) present positive trends in relation to young people who offend.
The Scottish Police Performance Framework reports that the number of detected crimes committed by children and young people in 2012-13 has fallen by 22% compared to the previous year, and to a level half of what it was in 2008-09 when figures were first collected.
SCRA Annual Statistics shows that the number of children and young people referred to the Reporter has decreased for the sixth consecutive year and is at its lowest level since 1989. The 28.6% decrease from 2011/12 levels was due to reductions in the numbers of both children and young people referred on care and protection grounds (down 27.5%) and children and young people referred on offence grounds (down 35.1%).
There has been a 77% decrease in offence referrals to SCRA since 2005/06.
Furthermore, the number of joint reports to the Reporter and Procurator Fiscal have fallen from 2909 in 2004/05 to 1210 in 2012/13, a reduction of 58%.
The findings of both reports demonstrate that the Whole System Approach to implementing the Preventing Offending Framework is having a very positive impact and making substantial progress.