Calls For Scarborough Youth Court To Return Amid Fears Over 'Hardened Criminals'

A Scarborough councillor is calling for the reinstatement of a dedicated youth court to tackle rising concerns over gangs of young people causing severe damage and anti-social behaviour in the town.

Gangs of young people causing severe damage to properties in Scarborough could become hardened criminals without tougher interventions. hat is the warning from local Councillor Janet Jefferson, who is calling for the return of special Saturday morning youth courts to hold offenders and their parents accountable.

Concerns over the destruction of local buildings and the intimidation of residents were raised at a meeting of the York and North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel with local representatives pushing for a return to specialised local justice measures to nip the behaviour in the bud before it escalates.

Scarborough Councillor Janet Jefferson highlighted the severe impact on the community, pointing to specific local buildings that have been targeted by youths in recent months.

Councillor Janet Jefferson said:

"We are seeing increasing incidents concerning gangs of young people, damaging property, causing serious anti-social behaviour.

A former guest house near me was completely wrecked by young people, throwing stones, we also had a former school where the building became a target practice and 24/7 security had to be brought into it.

Some years ago, we had a special Saturday morning court hearings, where young offenders and their parents attended, and in some cases, reparation orders were issued to deter future offending and it did work.

At present, there appears to be no control or power of these young people, but I think we've got to do something to prevent these young people being hardened criminals."

However, regional policing leaders have pushed back against categorising these severe incidents merely as anti-social behaviour, while also defending the wider youth population. Official figures presented at the meeting revealed that anti-social behaviour in the coastal command area, which includes Scarborough, has actually fallen by 13 per cent over the past two years.

Jo Coles, the deputy mayor for policing, fire and crime, emphasised that multi-agency work has been taking place throughout the summer in coastal communities like Eastfield to address concerns. She stressed that preventing offending at an early stage outside of the policing system is the most effective approach.

Deputy Mayor Jo Coles said:

"We do need to keep this in perspective now. Some of the things are not antisocial behaviour, they are crimes in a much more serious sense, and it's really important that we don't put things all in an antisocial basket, when actually some of this stuff is much more serious than that. And certainly criminal damage to someone's property is not antisocial behaviour. That is much more serious than that.

The coastal command area, which will include Scarborough, the antisocial behaviour volumes over the past two years are actually down 13%. So there may be some issues that are actually crime and not antisocial behaviour, because actual antisocial behaviour is down on the coast."

The deputy mayor also warned against unfairly blaming teenagers for all community issues, noting that older adults or individuals with substance abuse problems are often the root cause of local disturbances.

"I also think it's important to differentiate between young people and other types of offenders, because I think often young people get labelled as the causes of antisocial behaviour or particular incidents, and actually sometimes it's people with other problems with drug and alcohol issues or other support needs that they might have.

And so I just want to be clear. Let's not paint all young people with a bad brush, when actually sometimes it will be a very small minority of young people, and it might be some older adults who are leading on a group of young people. So, there might be all kinds of things at play."