Former Crown Agent to head youth crime prevention group

Former Crown Agent Catherine Dyer has been chosen to lead an expert group set up to prevent sexual offending among young people.

Plans for an expert group were announced by Justice Secretary Michael Matheson following the publication of research on sexual crimes in September. Its remit includes all sexual offending and harm, with a particular focus on cyber-enabled offending involving young people. 

Planned membership includes representatives of the the Scottish Youth Parliament, Youth Link, Rape Crisis Scotland, Child Protection Committees Scotland, Police Scotland, Young Scot, Crown Office and Social Work Scotland, along with expertise from the health sector and academia.

The group will have its first meeting early next year. It is expected to report in spring 2019.

Ms Dyer, who has previously chaired a review of child protection systems in 2014, said: “Sharing understanding of the nature and causes of behaviours that affect children and young people in the digital age, and creating solutions to reduce the numbers of harmful incidents, is clearly a priority.

“We will work with a wide range of organisations to gain further insights into what young people are experiencing and explore what more needs to be done over coming years to make our young people safe from risk of harm or harming others.”

Mr Matheson commented: “Catherine brings a wealth of experience. Her leadership, and the collective expertise of the group, will help us put a stop to what is a growing area of concern among young people."

He added: “Prevention is key, with figures showing more must be done for young people now. In the last year, more than 80% of victims of online sexual crime were female, with an average age of 14, and 96% of perpetrators were male. We need to better understand why some young men are motivated to behave in this way, and how we can prevent it.”