Aidan Wilcox

Evidence-Based Youth Justice? Some Valuable Lessons from an Evaluation for the Youth Justice Board

This article explores the reasons behind government support for the evidence-based approach and considers the limitations of this concept. In the criminal justice field the government has made repeated claims that it is using evidence to help inform policy. Drawing on the experience of an evaluation of restorative justice (RJ) projects - commissioned by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) - the article concludes that, in this instance, the YJB by-passed an evidence-based approach and gave more priority to developing practice than to the needs of rigorous evaluation. On a more positive note, it is argued that the YJB has recognised the tension between the needs of dynamic policy development and the requirements of rigorous evaluation, and its recent approach to evaluation signals a move towards the latter.

The prevalence of youth racially motivated offending: What do we really know?

This article reports on research conducted for the Youth Justice Board (YJB) which sought to establish the prevalence of racially motivated offending (RMO) amongst young people and the level of provision for such offenders. The article examines trends in youth RMO over the period 2002-2007 and explores the characteristics of offenders, geographical trends of RMO and sanctioning outcomes. Analysis demonstrates that of those young people referred to youth offending service (YOS) teams for RMO, the vast majority were male and white. There was a noticeable ‘North-South’ split in RMO, with levels in the North generally higher than in the South and sanctions for racially motivated offences were more severe than for offences generally. The paper calls for further investigation into the legislation and practice around youth RMO.

Current responses to youth racially motivated offending

This article presents the findings from a study for the Youth Justice Board (YJB) to identify the prevalence of racially motivated offending (RMO) amongst young people and Youth Justice System responses to it. The article focuses on programmes for RMO and presents the findings of a survey of Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) and secure establishments to establish the extent of provision for RMO, along with interviews with practitioners and young people. The findings demonstrate the majority of provision is multifaceted but also ad hoc and does not address the evidence on the causes of RMO. The multiplicity of causes needs to be reflected in the interventions designed to tackle it.