"Scottish justice system punishes the poor"
A new study has revealed that Scotland's criminal justice system punishes poorer people and makes it difficult for them to escape poverty.
The findings from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, by the University of Edinburgh's School of Law also showed that children from deprived backgrounds were twice as likely to face police action than better off children who commit the same crime.
Poorer young people were also about five times more likely to be placed on statutory supervision than their better-off counterparts, the study said.
Meanwhile, "people who lived in extreme poverty were much more likely to be the victims - and perpetrators - of crime," the study found.
The academics in the University of Edinburgh’s School of Law also identified gender as one of the most powerful predictors of violence, with boys being three times more likely than girls on average to engage in violent acts.
The study tracked 4,300 young people in Edinburgh since 1998 to better understand changes in their behaviour and lifestyles.
Another report published by the Scottish Justice Matters said the recent fall in crime rates in Scotland has not benefitted areas with the most chronic rates of crime.
This come as earlier a Scottish government spokesman said: "Scotland is becoming a safer place to live with recorded crime at a 41-year low, homicide figures at their lowest level in 39 years and 1,000 extra officers on our streets… Scottish Government has a long standing record on protecting the poorest and most vulnerable in our society and we are tackling poverty and inequalities head-on through a number of initiatives including a £296m investment to limit the damaging effects of the UK Government's welfare cuts."
“In the UK which includes Scotland, most of the government’s measures are against the poor,” London-based commentator Rodney Shakespeare told Press TV’s UK Desk.
He cited several judicial cases in which the poor are punished severely mainly because of the shortcomings in the justice system, saying the system is widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
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