A MAJOR report on young Wirral people's involvement with crime shows violence has been the most common reason for arrests in the past three years.

And it says that Seacombe has the highest number of complaints about rowdyism and anti-social behaviour in the whole of the borough.

While there has been significant reduction in the number of teenagers arrested, asault and bodily harm have been at consistently high levels compared to all other categories.

On average this year, 184 young people have been arrested by the police every month.

Compared to 2007, that represents a 20% fall.

The report, by Wirral Council's director of regeneration, is to be presented to councillors next week.

It says that among the 22 electoral wards in the borough, Bidston & St James and Birkenhead & Tranmere had the most youth arrests - three times higher than the Wirral average, followed by Seacombe and Liscard, at twice the Wirral average.

Analysis of Seacombe shows residents suffered the worst levels of anti-social behaviour.

The report says rowdyism contributed 84% of all reported "youths causing annoyance" incidents - four times higher than anywhere else.

Across the whole of Wirral in a one-year period to June, there were 7,088 incidents of youth-related anti-social behaviour reported to the police.

This is a 21% decrease when compared to 8,860 reported incidents in the same period last year.

Even so, in just one year, 1,578 young Wirral people entered the criminal justice system for the first time.

Statistics show that older people are the group least likely to be the victims of crime, while the risk of a young person becoming a victim is 30 per 1,000.

A survey of a cross section of residents found they believe that restricting teenagers' access to alcohol should be top of the list to cut crime.

The "Young people and community safety" review will be presented to the council's scrutiny committees on Monday and Wednesday next week.