Six-year-olds committing crimes, latest figures show

CHILDREN AS young as three have been recorded by police for committing offences.

Five three-year-olds are among the thousands of children recorded by Police Scotland in the past two years, according to details released to the BBC after a Freedom of Information request. Twenty four-yearolds and 376 children aged under eight — the age of criminal responsibility — are included in the figures.

Offences linked to the young children include shoplifting and vandalism.

Among all children under 16, there were 44,341 offences recorded.

In 2013-14 alone there were 5,154 violent crimes and 409 sexual crimes recorded among under-16s.

Although the age of criminal responsibility remains eight, the age at which children can be tried in a court of law is 12.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said youth crime has fallen by 52% over the last five years and continues to fall, dropping 22% since 2011-12.

“Recorded crimes and offences are not proven offences,” she said.

“Police have a requirement to record all crimes under the Scottish Crime Recording Standard.

“The Scottish Government will consider whether the age of criminal responsibility should be raised within the lifetime of this Parliament.

“To this end, we have set up a working group to look at the practical challenges of doing so.

“The Scottish Government’s early intervention initiative tackles all aspects of youth offending, from low-level crime to the most serious and harmful offences and aims to stop young people following the wrong path into a life of crime.”