It's no ma fault, honest

The Scottish Executive does not deal directly with youth crime. That is essentially a matter for the police, for local authorities, for the courts system and for various agencies. The role of the Executive is to set the framework within which these various actors operate, to ensure that their actions and policies are complementary and, by a combination of sticks and carrots, to influence the actors towards the delivery of certain objectives.

In these circumstances, it is somewhat bizarre to find the Justice Minister blaming everyone else for the failure to meet targets. The Scotsman reports:

"THE justice minister, Cathy Jamieson, was embroiled in a row with police chiefs yesterday over targets she has set for cutting youth crime statistics.
The dispute comes after it emerged there had been a rise in the number of persistent young offenders being referred to the children's hearing system. Police say the increase is an inevitable result of them clamping down on youth crime and claim Ms Jamieson's stated target of cutting the number of such cases is pointless.
But the minister appeared to blame the figures on police and other authorities, who she said were not doing enough to tackle young offenders. She insisted she still expected future targets for cutting the number of persistent young offenders to be met."

If the police and other authorities 'are not doing enough to tackle young offenders', then it is Ms Jamieson's fault in that either the framework for which she is responsible is inadequate or she is failing to exert appropriate influence on those authorities. I might further suggest that to reduce the success or failure of policy in an enormously complex area such as youth crime to a simple single numerical target is a rather daft proposition to start with.

Ms Jamieson deserves criticism, not just for failing to meet her target and for blaming others but for the poverty of thought she brings to her role as justice minister.