NCJ Number
218328
Date Published
2007
Length
272 pages
Annotation
This second edition of "Youth Justice: Ideas, Policy, Practice" is a comprehensive, critical overview of current youth justice policy and practice in the United Kingdom, with attention to the impact of the reform program stemming from the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and subsequent legislation.
Abstract
The first part of the book assesses British juvenile justice in the 1980s, when a conservative, authoritarian government was influenced by grass-roots efforts and public opinion that supported the increased use of diversion programs for juvenile offenders combined with the expansion of noncustodial supervision programs. This is followed by a chapter on youth justice in the 1990s, which was characterized by increasing punitiveness toward juvenile offenders linked with the view that incarceration was the most effective of incapacitation and the best setting for rehabilitation. This second edition supplements this discussion with a commentary on the most recent manifestations of these trends, particularly the intensification of the government's drive to produce safer communities by controlling youths' behavior. Despite these measures, and in some cases because of them, the custody rate for youth remains too high, and the mistreatment of youth in custody persists. The second part of the book considers the implications of the New Labour reform program in more detail, focusing on the three levels of policy, delivery mechanisms, and practice. The book argues that the failings of current youth justice policy, organizational framework, and delivery mechanisms have had a cumulative and damaging effect that has resulted in excessive reliance on intrusive, oppressive, and counterproductive control measures. The author proposes policies based on evidence from current initiatives that are effective domestically and internationally. The envisioned youth justice system would be based in an empirical analysis of all the factors that contribute to delinquent behavior. 29 notes, 352-item bibliography, and a subject index