Soft-touch Justice Secretary says don’t call them ‘offenders’
CRIMINALS should not be called ‘offenders’, according to the Justice Secretary, who believes the term must be ‘updated’.
Michael Matheson yesterday said he would like to ‘change the language’ used when addressing convicts.
The issue was raised by Nationalist MSP Ben Macpherson at a meeting of the justice committee where Mr Matheson had pledged to crack down on ‘soft-touch’ justice only moments before.
He asked if any consideration had been made over the use of ‘offenders’ in amendments to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act following calls for the word to be ditched.
Mr Matheson said that where possible officials had amended the legislation and ‘where we have been able to update the language we have done so’.
Mr Matheson said there are further areas which can also be addressed but admitted as the word ‘offender’ is in the title of the act, it could not be completely scrapped.
Mr Matheson said: ‘There are other parts where it is more difficult to actually change the language because of it tying into the language used in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, the original legislation.
‘I think there are a couple of areas where witnesses have highlighted where we could improve further, and I am keen to look at doing that.’
Mr Matheson said it was ‘difficult to change the language across the board’, due to the way in which the initial legislation was written.
The Scottish Daily Mail has told how the Scottish Government hoped to replace the word offenders, with criminals being referred to as a ‘person with conviction’.
Ministers claimed that this would help criminals move on after serving sentences by removing the stigma surrounding the word ‘offending’.