It also emerged that under-16s were responsible for 30% of all race-related offences in the city over each of the last two years.

As a whole, the number of victims of race offences dropped in both children and adults from 217 in 2008/09 to 169 in 2009/10.

A spokeswoman for Tayside Police said that while a decrease in reports was “encouraging”, acts of racism were unacceptable.

She added, “The majority of these incidents relate to verbal abuse, criminal damage and other non-violent crime, but that should in no way detract from their seriousness or the adverse affect they can have upon their victim.”

From March 2008 to February 2009, 65 juveniles committed race-related crimes, accounting for 37% of people responsible for all race offences in Dundee.

These included breach of the peace, fire-raising, minor assault and racially aggravated conduct.

For the same period in 2009/10 the figure for juveniles dropped to 34 children or 22% of the total.

Crimes committed by juveniles over both periods included an assault carried out by a seven-year-old and a six-year-old who was handed a police warning for racially aggravated conduct.

Ten 15-year-olds were reported to the children’s panel for assault, and five juveniles were dealt with for breach of the peace offences.

Race crimes are dealt with in a variety of ways depending on the nature and severity of the offence.

Police can report an adult to the procurator fiscal, issue a person with an informal or restorative warning, send out a warning letter or choose to keep the offender in custody with a view to a court appearance.

Juveniles can be reported to the children’s panel, referred to an external agency for intervention or given a verbal or informal warning.

Over both periods the most regularly occurring offence against ethnic groups was racially aggravated conduct, responsible for 284 reported incidents, followed by 51 petty thefts.

There were 21 instances of breach of the peace relating to race, nine notifications of offensive or obscene electronic messages and two serious assaults. Racist vandalism or damage was reported 12 times and there was one case of theft by housebreaking included.

Just one instance where a person had a blade or pointed object in a public place was recorded and one indecent breach of the peace took place.

Alyson Thomson of Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland said the group was hopeful the figures represented a real drop in crime and not just a drop in reporting.

She said, “The commission is clear there is no place for racism in Scotland and we know the majority of Scots agree.

“However, with police in Dundee still having to respond to more than three incidences of racist crime a week, it is clear more needs to be done.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said, “We have provided record levels of funding for police forces and we have delivered on our pledge to put an additional 1000 officers on the streets.

“This is making a real difference, with reported crime levels falling to a near 30-year low — and we welcome further evidence of this trend suggested by this decrease in racist incidents in Tayside.”