Speaking at crime reduction charity Nacro's annual conference in Nottingham, Tam Baillie said indicators that a child will go on to offend can be present from a young age and it is important to "get in early".
"We need to be targeting our efforts on the most effective interventions for the benefit of our most vulnerable children," he said. "There is only so much we can expect from our juvenile justice systems."
He added that there is a need for an attitude shift away from the "demonisation" of children who commit offences.
"When children like Baby P die at the hands of their parents, it is carers and parents who get vilified but if children commit offences it is children who are vilified, with no mention of their early years experiences. They often live some traumatised lives and have experiences from which they should have been protected from but weren't."
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