The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime tracked 4,300 young people who started secondary school in Edinburgh in 1998. They were asked whether they had engaged in different kinds of delinquent behaviour up to the start of secondary school, and if they had only done so in the past 12 months.
The largest increase was the prevalence of fire setting, which went from one in 25 of respondents to nearly one in seven in the past 12 months.
Paul Bradshaw, one of the authors of the study, said: "One possible reason for the apparent increase in these openly public delinquent acts is that, as they grow older, young people are more likely to spend their free time unsupervised."
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