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\n Scotland\u2019s criminal age of responsibility should be raised as high as 16 to help safeguard a generation of children from falling into a vicious spiral of offending, prison and ruined lives.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Academics behind a major study into young people\u2019s criminal behaviour have also concluded that the nation\u2019s approach to tackling youth crime<\/a> needs a significant overhaul, after it emerged that children as young as five can be labelled as potential offenders.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Once tarred as possible future troublemakers, the research found the stigma could follow them throughout their lives.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n The Edinburgh study, which has spanned 24 years and tracked a cohort of around 4,300 people from first year in secondary school to adulthood, found that once young people fall into persistent patterns of offending, punishments devised to curb their conduct are largely ineffective.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n While in certain cases, they could even exacerbate negative behaviours.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Edinburgh University academics Lesley McAra, Professor of Penology, and Susan McVie, Professor of Quantitative Criminology, co-directors of The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, also found that simply being known to social agencies in Scotland<\/a> can be a risk factor for children.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Their study suggests that young people who encountered social services possibly as a result of poverty, behavioural difficulties or childhood trauma \u2013 some as a result of family issues and through no fault of their own – were more likely to end up being dealt with by the youth justice and adult criminal justice system than those who had not. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Even young people who had done nothing wrong could find themselves branded as troublesome, with the label sticking throughout their lives.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIt can be very hard to unpeel those labels,\u201d Professor McVie said.\n<\/p>\n \n Participants in the research told the academics that a key factor prompting an end to their offending was the achievement of social and economic aspirations, such as having a job, a stable relationship and caring for children.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n The criminal justice system, however, had little impact on changing patterns of behaviour for the better.\n<\/p>\n \n The Edinburgh study tracked and examined a cohort of participants from age 12 to 35 years, making it the UK\u2019s largest criminological life-course study and one of the few worldwide to include both boys and girls.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n It spanned children in mainstream secondary schools and private schools, as well as schools for children with special educational needs, and looked at a wide range of experiences including family life, leisure interests and friendships.\n<\/p>\n \n Speaking in a presentation given as part of the Royal Society of Edinburgh\u2019s summer events programme, Curious 2022, Prof McAra said: \u201cOur findings do make very difficult reading for policy makers because they suggest that the criminal justice system is more out to damage people and inhibit their capacity to achieve the modest social norms that support pathways out of offending.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n