## Ten-year-old tearaways to be tagged

### by MURDO MacLEOD POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

> Margaret Curran, the Scottish Executive minister for Communities said that it was essential for society to get tough with young criminals.

> TEARAWAY children as young as 10 will be electronically tagged under government plans to crack down on the nationwide epidemic of youth crime.
> Youngsters responsible for terrorising Scottish communities will be forced to wear the tags to prevent them leaving their homes at night under the proposals.
> And parents who fail to help impose tagging orders on their out-of-control children will face fines and even jail.
> The controversial move is part of a Scottish Executive campaign against the rising tide of petty crime and antisocial behaviour perpetrated by under-16s.
> But while the proposed tagging of pre-teenage children has won cross-party political support it has been criticised by civil liberties groups and child psychologists, one of whom warned tags would become a "badge of honour" for unruly youngsters.
> Electronic tagging has been available to courts in Scotland for the past year but has been restricted to adult offenders, chiefly as an alternative to prison. The tags send a signal to a transmitter in the offender’s home which is relayed to a central control.
> The Scottish Executive is now proposing that Children’s Hearings should have the right to order that under-16s are tagged to curb their offending behaviour.
> This would bring Scotland into line with England and Wales where 4,000 10 to 15-year-olds have been tagged since 2001.
> In Scotland, the tagging of a child would be considered in cases where the youngster had already broken an anti-social behaviour order, typically a ban on visiting an area where they had already caused a nuisance.
> The tagging of the child would be accompanied in most cases by a parenting order which compelled the youngster’s guardians to ensure the child obeyed the tagging order. Failure to do so could result in the parents being fined and failure to pay the fine could ultimately result in a jail term.
> Margaret Curran, the Scottish Executive minister for Communities, confirmed that 10 was the lowest age for tagging being considered.
> Curran revealed that as an MSP she had been overwhelmed with complaints about youth crime and anti-social behaviour.
> She said: "Three-quarters of the cases I deal with are anti-social behaviour. I have about 14 surgeries a mouth and probably meet about 50 or 60 people on average. It’s consistent. It is by far and away the most dominant complaint.
> "We need to do what has to be done. If that’s tough then that’s tough. We are not helping these young people at all if we don’t try to deal with their behaviour.
> "You get people coming in at 16 or 17 who are almost beyond redemption, hardened criminals. Or having engaged in enough behaviour to feel as if they’re in a ‘them and us’ situation. We want to introduce them to behaviour modification at an earlier age."
> Statistics from the Executive prove that the number of crimes linked to juvenile offenders has risen sharply in recent years.
> Since 1991, the number of breaches of the peace has risen by 34%, from 55,332 to 74,169. Over the same period, petty assault has risen by 33% from 41,022 to 54,726.
> SNP justice spokeswoman, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "I’m not against tagging young offenders. The concern would be that tagging would be used as a substitute for secure units, and that children don’t lose the opportunity to have their offending addressed and try and change their behaviour. I would be concerned that it wouldn’t be used because of a lack of resources."
> A spokeswoman for children’s charity Children 1st said: "We believe that moving the focus away from locking up young people is welcome. Tagging, though, should not necessarily be seen as a solution. Given the concerns about the activities of young people, there should be more attention on young people and what they are doing and whether they are safe."
> Leading child psychologist Dr Jack Boyle, who has worked with older youths who have been tagged, said: "What tagging does to kids is give them status. The only peers anti-social kids have are other anti-social kids." However, he added: "I understand the government has to do something about this minority who wreak havoc and misery.
> "Tagging can have a short-term effect. It might keep them from committing a crime, keep them away from certain areas or keep them in the house.
> "All you are saying is you’re going to keep an eye on them, it’s not a long-term solution. The only long-term solution is intervention at an early age."
> A spokeswoman for the Howard League for Penal Reform said tagging was a worthwhile addition to the range of measures that could be taken against juvenile offenders.
> But she added: "Purely using a tag without taking into account the complex needs of young people is futile. It doesn’t take into account the life situation they are in."

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