CHILDREN as young as 12 will be given the power to sentence their peers for petty crimes if the Scottish Liberal Democrats remain in power in Scotland next year.

Panels of children aged 12-16 will sit in judgment on first offenders and be given powers to force young criminals to carry out community service, attend anger-management classes or apologise to their victims.

The youth panels, designed to ease pressure on the children’s hearing system, would deal with minor offences and nuisance behaviour such as under-age drinking, drug taking, truancy and vandalism.

Youngsters would be recruited from the same communities and class backgrounds as those appearing before them. They would be trained, and supported by adults working in the children’s hearing system.

The youth panels would have the power to impose a range of punishments, such as cleaning up graffiti, collecting rubbish, helping to build play areas or forcing offenders to write letters of apology to their victims.

Young offenders would be referred to the youth panels by teachers, the children’s panel or the police.

The scheme, which will be included in the LibDem manifesto for next year’s Holyrood election, is based on youth courts in New York that encourage young people to take responsibility for their actions by making them acknowledge the damage they have done to their communities.

Jeremy Purvis, justice spokesman for the Scottish LibDems, who visited the courts in Harlem and Brooklyn earlier this year, said: “I was very impressed by the initiatives I saw in New York. The use of positive peer pressure to deal with low-level offending has an impressively high success rate.

“Young people who are in trouble for the first time are much more likely to be deterred from getting into any more trouble by people their own age and from their own community than they are by any external influence.”

Currently the children’s hearing system is struggling to cope with the rising number of young offenders. Last year almost 54,000 children were referred to children’s reporters, more than ever before.

“The children’s hearing system is groaning under the weight of ever-increasing numbers of referrals, to the extent that the head of the children’s reporter administration has told police to cut down on the number of youngsters they refer,” said Margaret McKay, chief executive of Children 1st.

“This idea is certainly an option that could be looked at as part of the wider discussion on the future of Scotland’s juvenile justice system.”

Hilary Lynn, vice-chair of the Scottish youth parliament, added: “This type of initiative would be a huge step forward. Young people want to challenge the tiny minority causing them to have a negative image, and this would give them the chance to do that.

“It would also help improve behaviour. It’s always embarrassing to be judged by your peers and these panels would be a clear message that certain behaviour wasn’t acceptable. It would put off a lot of people from drifting into crime.”

James Brodick, director of the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, said the youth court established there nine years ago had been extremely effective.

“Ninety per cent of the punishments are completed — this compares to just 60% in the regular court system,” he said.

“Every year we have people who have come before the court coming back and joining the court as members having completed their community sentence.”

However Kelly Bayes, head of policy and communication at the Aberlour Child Care Trust, the children’s charity, said: “The children’s hearing panel listens to all manner of very personal details about a child’s family background and extended family as well as reports from teachers. I don’t think it would be appropriate for young people and children to have access to such confidential information.”

Earlier this year, ministers announced an overhaul of the children’s hearings system which could lead to more frequent appearances before hearings for persistent and serious young offenders to review progress, and a requirement for other offenders to explain their behaviour to their victims.

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