There can be no ‘been there, done that, sorted it’ attitude in justice if successes are to continue

Knife - Image credit: PA Images

Recently, the Scottish justice system has been in the limelight, in a good way, with the success of the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in tackling violent crime, and knife crime in particular, being lauded as an approach that London could learn from after a series of deaths of young people in that city.

The VRU, which was set up in 2005, has taken a preventative, public health approach to violent crime that has seen results.

Between 2007-08 and 2016-17, there was a 44 per cent decrease in violent crime – albeit with an increase of six per cent from 2015-16 to 2016-17, which may or may not just be a blip – and a 47 per cent reduction in homicides.

And similar success has been seen within criminal justice with young people, where the ‘whole system approach’ (WSA), launched in 2011, which aimed to keep young people under 18 out of the justice system, has been very successful, with huge reductions in referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration – an 83 per cent reduction on offending grounds by 2013/14 – a 70 per cent reduction in under-18s in custody and a 74 per cent reduction in young people appearing in court.

However, we need to be sure that success does not breed complacency. In a recent blog reflecting on the successes of WSA, Fiona Dyer, deputy head of the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) at the University of Strathclyde, said that “in 2018 the picture is looking slightly different”.

Dyer notes that over half of councils have now lost their youth justice teams and suggests that they may have been “a victim of our own success”.

Some councils instead now treat youngsters who offend within the general children and families’ teams, and those over 16 within adult justice teams – contrary to the WSA aim of keeping under-18s out of the adult justice system.

Speaking about this change, Dyer’s colleague at the CYCJ, Claire Lightowler told Holyrood: “I think we’re at risk of losing some of that workforce and some of those skills and expertise at the present time.

And it really does need a kind of new investment, new focus, a new phase, otherwise we can really lose some of the wins that we’ve had.”

Lightowler said she thought “attention has just been diverted away to other things because it’s a good-news story, because it seems to be going well.

And you can understand that, but I think it really is important we don’t take our eye away from it, because if we do that, then we will see a falling back”.

And with much of the preventative, community-based solutions being funded by councils, it is going to come down to channelling more funding through local authorities.

Although too early to measure results, only a year on from the new model coming into force, the same issue has the potential to affect community justice, both now and in the future.

It is currently in the spotlight, but sufficient resources will be needed to ensure its success and to sustain it once attention moves on elsewhere.

There can be no ‘been there, done that, sorted it’ attitude in justice. Gains will only be maintained if focus, specialisms and, most importantly, resources are too.

We need to ensure we’re not so busy celebrating previous victories that we leave a goal undefended.