A project set up to work with problem repeat offenders will be rebranded, amid fears membership will be a “badge of honour”.
Members of the Tayside Community Justice Authority (TCJA) met in Forfar and discussed a change to the Tayside Persistent Offenders Project. The scheme, which will begin on April 1, will be renamed the Tayside Intensive Support Service.
TCJA secretary Roger Mennie’s agenda noted the decision was come to “following a discussion within the project group of the perceived stigma which might accrue to offenders who are labelled ‘persistent’ or ‘prolific’.”
Angus councillor Glennis Middleton said: “The people who have mentioned the stigma are these the concerns of offenders who are stigmatised, or those who work with them?
“We are talking about persistent offenders here and I very much doubt they care what they are called.”
Tayside Chief Superintendent Roddy Ross said stigma was less of a reason to worry about the title “persistent”.
“In the past we’ve had the issue with the whole Asbo (anti-social behaviour orders) badge of honour,” he said.
“The persistent offender tag is something some may like to achieve and be able to boast about, so there’s that worry, rather than it being a stigma.”
John Newton of Perth and Kinross Council said: “This has come back from other groups in places like Edinburgh and Glasgow, who have fed back that removing the offender tag is a good idea.”
Asbos were introduced in 1998 and were aimed at persistent offenders in the courtrooms, often vilified in the media as “superneds”.
An order of the court tells an individual over 10 years old how they must not behave, but in many high-profile cases the order is shown to be a badge of honour, rather than one of shame.
The spread in popularity of the Asbo saw a rise in the case of self-styled Scottish superneds such as Richard Mullen and Edmond Eccles.
Eccles first hit headlines in 2004 when the Asbo Bill was used to ban him from an area of central Scotland and assumed the dubious moniker when he appeared at Alloa Sheriff Court to be sentenced for 17 offences of assault, theft, housebreaking and vandalism in Alva, where he bossed a hooligan gang.
Richard Mullen was banned by a court from going near his own family after attempting to murder his cousin.
He committed scores of crimes in Blairgowrie as a teenager and appeared in court in connection with 49 crimes between January 20 and October 18 2007.