NCJ Number
232922
Date Published
2010
Length
39 pages
Annotation
This chapter relates how, in recent times, the youth justice policy agenda in England and Wales has been effectively hijacked by the interests of party politics at the expense of those caught up in the system, the youth.
Abstract
This chapter traces the history of youth justice policy and practice over the last 30 years and provides an assessment of a major transformation of the youth justice system introduced in 1998 by a new government, eager to make its mark. It shows that in its own terms, the new reforms have delivered mixed results, but that measured against wider criteria, the current system fails in many respects. In the last 20 years, politicians on all sides have exploited youth crime for their own ends, and have made the government reactive to headline-grabbing events, and vulnerable to political whim. As a consequence, there are now a series of complex tensions and contradictions that lie at the heart of the government's strategy on youth crime. It is suggested that the time is long overdue to stop governing through crime and create instead a political space for a rational, humane, and effective response to the problem of youth crime to emerge. Table, figures, notes, and references