Police are increasingly offering help instead of purely looking at punishment, finds Lucy Adams

A young man is arrested. He is at a crossroads in his life: on the fringes of a gang, but not yet a fully-fledged member. What do you do - lock him up or help him?

It's a stark choice, but one that police are increasingly facing. There are thought to be 300 gangs in Scotland, 167 in the Strathclyde force area alone. Yet the punishment option is increasingly being seen as just one part of the police and courts' armoury.

Since the beginning of the year, Strathclyde Police has been deploying extra officers in areas deemed the worst for problems with armed gangs. More than 300 violent offenders have been arrested in early morning raids.

However, in an exclusive interview with The Herald, Campbell Corrigan, acting assistant chief constable (crime), revealed many of the young boys on the fringes of gang violence have been given intensive help to change tack.

In all, 312 young people, almost all boys, have been arrested by the force's gangs taskforce in the new crackdown and all of them have been offered help ranging from assistance with housing and work to alcohol rehabilitation.

Some 165 were referred to local authority antisocial behaviour units for help, 107 were referred for diversionary action and four were passed on to housing.

Mr Corrigan said: "We can't accept everything of the past because we know that the way we have dealt with gang members and antisocial behaviour has not been too successful. It's what happens after the police have arrested people - it is about pushing people down the right road. They have to get pushed to find out about the opportunities on the other side.

"We are working very closely with partners and intruding into young people's chaotic lives and saying: What about a job? What about training? Because the alternative is the police'."

According to the World Health Organisation, Scotland's murder rate for teenagers and young adults is five times that of England and Wales. It is thought that about 3000 people were seriously assaulted with a weapon in Glasgow last year, but only 1000 reported it.

Strathclyde's anti-violence campaign is a key priority for the force. It has been running for the past eight months and has already seen positive results.

The campaign includes a marked increase in high-visibility patrols targeting hot-spot areas "mapped" by police intelligence. If police can separate 20 to 25% of boys on the fringes of the gangs, they can isolate the hard core.

Mr Corrigan said: "We are trying to corral people into taking a different option with diversion, because we want the people to do well in life and because we want our calls to go down in relation to violence.

"We're working with the councils and voluntary sector and saying that, if we're going in on the Saturday, we need your street workers to be there and your service provision to help with getting people into better housing and education and training.

"This is building towards getting away from what we used to do, which was just locking them up and putting them to court. We used to give them advice about not drinking, but the issues which lie below the surface and make them drink need to be tackled. It is not good enough for the police to say that is not our job.

"It starts off with information being given about diversion. That might be when that person is coming back out of Govan police office after spending a night in the cells for breach of the peace. That gives them an opportunity to speak to someone about their addiction or how to get a job.

"The challenge is building capacity. If we arrest 15 people as part of the gang initiative, we want 15 places available to help them out of that chaotic lifestyle.

"That is a major challenge. Cops understand now that, if they put that wee bit in, it is an investment in the future. We are working with the Crown very closely about gang-related bail conditions and identifying to the Crown the context of someone involved in a gang and being involved in an assault. If we can exclude them from certain areas of the town, we know that can help."

A Crown Office spokeswoman said it fully supported all the work by police to tack community crime.

Yesterday, police displayed an array of "truly terrifying" weapons they had seized since the beginning the year.

The haul of 2750 weapons, which include samurai swords and machetes, is a more traditional part of the anti-violence strategy - but one which is just as important.

Mr Corrigan said: "Some of the items recovered in the last six months are truly terrifying and yet these are the weapons being used by people on the street to kill and injure one another.

"It's imperative that these items are not allowed on streets and we will do everything in our power to make sure they are removed and that the people using them are arrested.

"But it's not just the samurai swords, machetes and butterfly knives causing death or injury on the streets but ordinary household items, such as scissors and bread knives. These are just as dangerous as the other items."

Mr Corrigan added: "Young people who carry knives say it helps them feel protected and most probably have no intention of using it but the likelihood is, if you carry any type of weapon, you are increasing your chances of using it and you could potentially kill someone.

"We know there are still problems and we are not complacent. We need to break this culture of carrying knives and we will continue to tackle this serious issue."