POLICE Scotland’s “consensual” stop and search policy – now abandoned – has led to lasting damage to relationships with young people, according to one of the authors of a new book, who warns the harm could take years to reverse.
The study, Young People and Social Control, by Professor Ross Deuchar of the University of the West of Scotland, and Professor Kalwant Bhopal of Southampton University examines oppressive policies targeting marginalised young people in a range of settings, including schools, policing and the courts, and claims recent years have seen a focus on enforcement rather than welfare.
Prof Deuchar says too often society “gives up” on young people, dating a change in attitudes in the UK to the killing of James Bulger in 1993.
“Scotland has seen a significant improvement under the SNP Government but there are still interventions taking place which have a negative effect. Police Scotland is a good example where there was a rhetoric about prevention, but under [former chief constable] Stephen House, there was a focus on enforcement,” he said.
“There have been changes to stop and search, since but it they will take a long time to have an effect. A lot of the young people we interviewed – particularly those from a socially disadvantaged background - still have very negative views of the police.”
The book explores social policy successes as well as failures, including those which Police Scotland has been involved in, such as a series of 2014 “listening events” i n Govan which saw officers collaborating with the local community over the policing of the annual Govan Fair. “They ended up training local people to be marshalls and stewards so that they were able to police the event and the local community themselves, which led to a much more positive atmosphere,” Prof Deuchar claims.
The book says marginalised young people risk being over-criminalised and argues a range of pioneering approaches are solving problems more effectively than clumsy enforcement. “It aims to bring insights from across the UK,” Prof Deuchar says. “We are calling for more of these type of approaches.”
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