How many children have been caught housebreaking in your area?

More than 1,200 youths have been referred for housebreaking incidents since 2018 - with two as young as eight.

The number of children caught breaking into homes in Scotland increased last year.

More than 1,200 young people have been referred for housebreaking incidents since 2018 – with two in Aberdeen aged just eight years old.

More than a third of the children caught in Scotland over the period were aged 15.

Glasgow recorded the largest number of cases with 495 under-18s being referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration over a five-year period.

Edinburgh was the second highest region with 81 over the last five years, though still only a fraction (16.3%) of the number of children referred in Scotland’s biggest city.

This was followed by North Lanarkshire with 78 and the Highlands with 67.

Local authority/Age of child891011121314151617Referrals
Aberdeen City214279144548
Aberdeenshire1257102128
Angus1178118
Argyll & Bute12249
Clackmannanshire121419
Dumfries & Galloway15121311345
Dundee11317224
East Ayrshire139115130
East Lothian1777123
East Renfrewshire2353215
Edinburgh, City of11204114481
Eilean Siar1474218
Falkirk1536621
Fife15147835
Glasgow3759186176577495
Highland1621267667
Inverclyde1517
Midlothian218213
Moray126514
North Ayrshire1427
North Lanarkshire27152425578
Orkney1214
Perth & Kinross121217
Renfrewshire351078336
Scottish Borders135312
Shetland55
South Ayrshire15111220
South Lanarkshire482611150
Stirling257
West Dunbartonshire157483129
West Lothian7816334
Referrals2231550167384476155351289

The trend for referrals is going down from the peak of 419 cases in 2018, although the 189 referrals last year was a rise from 2021.

The data, which was provided to the justice affairs magazine 1919, showed the majority of cases involved teenagers aged between 13 and 16.

Conservative MSP Liam Kerr told 1919: “People right across the country will be staggered to see kids as young as eight getting involved in this very serious crime.

Local authority20182019202020212022
Aberdeen City1165206
Aberdeenshire124624
Angus44 19
Argyll & Bute22113
Clackmannanshire 522 
Dumfries & Galloway16311114
Dundee231423
East Ayrshire 410412
East Lothian36428
East Renfrewshire23217
Edinburgh, City of28961028
Eilean Siar 11412
Falkirk14466
Fife1051442
Glasgow21418972128
Highland182081110
Inverclyde 1 51
Midlothian632 2
Moray135 5
North Ayrshire133  
North Lanarkshire28271049
Orkney  3 1
Perth & Kinross212 2
Renfrewshire541593
Scottish Borders31 35
Shetland 14  
South Ayrshire152  3
South Lanarkshire1321619
Stirling2   5
West Dunbartonshire13123 1
West Lothian739411
Total Referrals419350212119189

“It’s especially alarming for Aberdeen, which features prominently in these statistics.

“Kids of this age aren’t capable of executing this kind of crime alone and will undoubtedly be getting exploited and controlled by older criminals.

“It is those individuals we should be targeting to ensure this sort of despicable activity reduces.

“Anyone who uses children as part of their criminal operation is beyond contempt.”

Niven Rennie, a former police superintendent who is executive chair of the Hope Collective community organisation, said some young people are being exploited to commit crimes.

He said: “Children as young as eight should be offered something a whole lot better than getting involved in crime.

“This is similar to what’s happening with drugs and county lines, where criminals exploit young people because they are less likely to be stopped by police.

“We need to examine the causes of this because it isn’t normal behaviour.

“People are impoverished and willing to take any action they can to get some money.”

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