Ewing says 'rely less on Asbos'

The Scottish Government has placed an emphasis on prevention

Less reliance should be placed on Anti-social Behaviour Orders when tackling youth crime, Scotland's community safety minister has said.

Fergus Ewing told BBC Scotland that more needed to be done to tackle the "root causes" of youth offending.

The government does not want to scrap Asbos, but it said prevention and intervention were the most effective ways to tackle the problems.

Ministers are looking into how to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Mr Ewing told BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live programme: "Handing out Asbos has a certain value, but at the end of the day they're bits of paper and bits of paper don't really tend to change young people's behaviour, I don't think."

The minister went on: "I'm not saying that they're wholly ineffective.

"I am saying, however, that they may not reach the root cause, which is likely to be tied up with difficulties at home, lack of parents or parental discipline, difficulties with alcohol and drugs.

"These are the root causes, which are difficult, but we are determined to tackle."