Now sexual assault could be treated as ‘public health issue’
FeWer sex offenders would face jail under an extraordinary new soft-touch drive to treat sexual assault as a ‘public health’ issue.
ministers are investigating proposals to do more to understand the reasons sex crimes are perpetrated rather than simply punishing them.
they want to duplicate similar methods used to combat violent crime, which led to a focus on preventative work to fight knife crime and youth thuggery.
But as sexual crime continues to soar, the scottish Government is giving ‘serious consideration’ to adopting the same strategy in order to tackle sexual offences.
the plan follows a row over dentistry student Christopher Daniel, 18, who was given an absolute discharge after sexually abusing a six-year-old girl
A sheriff sparked outrage after ruling it would damage his career prospects and that he was guilty only of ‘inappropriate curiosity’.
scottish tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘With such worrying increases in sexual crime, we must understand why these crimes are being committed, but this must take place in tandem with the ultimate deterrent of tough prison sentences.
‘this cannot be another excuse for snP soft-touch justice, which puts criminals before victims.’
the proposed strategy would mirror the current ‘public health approach’ to violent crime.
scotland’s Violence reduction Unit (VrU) has won praise for its ground-breaking work in lowering crime with strategies such as going into schools and hospitals to intervene in the lives of young men involved in knife offences.
the new sex crime plan is being considered because sexual offences have rocketed over the past decade, some involving children as young as six. experts want to focus on possible links between child abuse, poverty, inequality and learning difficulties, and sexual offending.
Former Crown Office chief executive Catherine Dyer was appointed by the scottish Government to head an expert group on preventing sexual offending involving young people. the group is due to report back to ministers by the end of this month. its main focus is on sexual offending among young people but if approved, this approach could be widened to sex criminals of all ages.
Dr mairead tagg, a clinical psychologist and one of scotland’s leading experts on male violence, said the new approach might have some benefits but could be used as a ‘potential loophole’ by offenders to excuse their behaviour.
Dr tagg added: ‘All it’s going to take is for a defence lawyer to say this man endured difficult experiences or lived with poverty, or grew up with a patriarchal and toxic view of the world.’
But niven rennie, head of the VrU, said the new approach could be ‘adapted to fit any number of society’s problems and it certainly would seem a fit with sexual crime’. mr rennie added: ‘You can’t arrest your way out of a serious criminal problem.’
Justice secretary Humza Yousaf said: ‘the scottish Government has invested more than £17million in violence prevention.
‘this has included support for scotland’s Violence reduction Unit, which has taken an innovative public health approach.’