NCJ Number
129839
Date Published
1991
Length
147 pages
Annotation
Based on a research study conducted from 1985 to 1988 in six juvenile courts in the north and northeast of England, this study examines the characteristics of and the use of the social information report by magistrates in sentencing juveniles.
Abstract
Study data include interviews with over 90 magistrates, observation material from the six courts, and an analysis of social inquiry reports. The analysis focuses on how magistrates perceive the social backgrounds of the juvenile defendants who appear before them, how these perceptions are produced by and produce the nature of sentencing in the juvenile court, and how juveniles are sentenced on the basis of images of their lives that bear little relationship to reality. The study concludes that the social inquiry report becomes part of a process of multiple displacement whereby the juvenile defendant becomes less of a person and more of a case. Reports interpret the offender to the magistrate who reinterprets the reinterpretation; solicitors also reinterpret the report, and magistrates reinterpret their reinterpretation. The perceptions of the offender, the victim, and persons who know the offender intimately are progressively silenced through the processes of reporting and the bureaucratic practices of the juvenile court. This study suggests how the social inquiry report can be constructed to provide improved magistrate decisionmaking in juvenile sentencing. A 200-item bibliography, appended data, and a subject index