Dundee was one of just seven local authority areas north of the border to record a notable decline, receiving praise from justice minister Cathy Jamieson.

She also offered additional support to councils, which are failing to meet targets set by the Executive as part of its efforts to tackle the country’s ‘ned culture’.

According to figures from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, the number of persistent offenders referred in Dundee decreased from 109 to 80 in two years.

Dundee also has more recidivist youngsters per 1000 of population than anywhere else in Scotland.

Leader of the council administration Jill Shimi said, “I welcome the 27% reduction in numbers of children involved in persistent offending in Dundee.

“We have out-performed the Scottish Executive's target of 10% reduction and this reflects the hard work carried out in Dundee over the last year.

“The city council works closely with colleagues in the police and information about problematic individuals and groups is shared across all relevant agencies to ensure the right response, whether that be home/school support, outreach youth work, sports development activity, drug/alcohol services, parenting services or the many voluntary activities which keep young people away from trouble.

“Every child who has been reported for an offence or where they are involved in antisocial behaviour receives some form of follow-up service, such as the police warning scheme, SACRO, the Compass scheme or a visit from the council's dedicated Antisocial Behaviour Team.

“Where there is evidence of family or social problems the social work department works with the child and their parent/family to tackle underlying problems.”

Councillor Shimi said that Dundee’s Youth Justice Strategy Group — the city’s inter-agency forum which oversees efforts to tackle youth crime — had, in the past year, used a range of new and existing measures to tackle more serious or persistent troublemakers.

For example, since last summer, eight youngsters had been “tagged” through the Children’s Hearing system, through the Intensive Support and Monitoring Service scheme.

The number of offences committed by the eight young people had reduced from 213 in the 6 months before their Panel, to 34 in the six months after, a reduction of 84%.

“We are pleased at the downward trend in persistent offending, but we are not complacent,” added the councillor.

“The council is committed to using all available resources and working with communities to further reduce this figure next year and beyond and work towards Dundee being a safer city.

“The youngsters of this city have a huge part to play in maintaining the momentum of Dundee’s regeneration and these figures show that we have yet another real reason for optimism for the years ahead.”

Dundee East MSP Shona Robison also welcomed the reduction in the number of children and young people identified as persistent young offenders in the city.

“However, despite this reduction, Dundee along with only eight other Local Youth Justice areas, have over 60% of persistent young offenders,” she said.

“In addition, Dundee has the highest rate of persistent young offending per 1000 population — even higher than Glasgow.

“There is much to welcome in today’s report, and Dundee must take heart from these encouraging statistics. However, there is still a lot which remains to be done.

“We desperately need to find ways which stop young people turning to anti-social behaviour in the first place and deter youngsters from re-offending.

“We need to raise the aspirations of Dundee’s young people and provide real and productive alternatives to crime.

“But we need to also ensure that young folk understand the severity of their actions and to face up to the consequences of what they do.”

Elsewhere in Tayside, persistent offenders in Perth and Kinross dropped from 31 in 2003/04 to 28 in 2005/06, but there was a rise in Angus from 29 to 44.

Fife also recorded a considerable increase over the period, from 50 to 78, while the Scotland-wide figures were up by around 10%.

A senior Tayside Police officer said there were a number of schemes being run locally to tackle youth crime and deal with those involved.

“These are pretty stark figures, and putting them into context is the difficulty,” said Chief Superintendent Ian Alexander, divisional commander for Dundee.

“There could be an element of double counting, and there are issues about fast track systems and youth justice pilots, which have not yet been evaluated.

“A pilot scheme being run in Angus aims to produce better outcomes for young people and identify quickly the persistent young offenders who come to our attention.”

He added, “What matters at the end of the day is the outcome for the young person.”

Three years ago, the Scottish Executive changed its definition of a persistent young offender to someone aged between eight and 16, who was referred to the children’s reporter on five or more occasions in any six month period.

The SNP said that the justice minister had “no grip” over the growing problem of persistent young offending, and claimed that the minister had not given the agencies involved adequate resources.

Ms Jamieson expressed disappointment at the figures, and restated her belief that performance in the area must improve.

“The vast majority of young people are a credit to themselves, their families and their communities, but the behaviour of a small minority remains a persistent problem,” she said.

“The fact that reductions of between 10 and 55% in the number of persistent young offenders were achieved in seven local authority areas shows this is a target that can be met, and our target for 2008 remains in place.

“Hard-working families and communities across Scotland want government and local agencies to deliver two things in terms of youth justice.

“They want to see the behaviour of persistent offenders challenged and changed. And, above all, they want to see fewer crimes carried out against them, their families, their property or their neighbours.”