Denis Jones

Questioning New Labour’s Youth Justice Strategy: A review article:

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and Part 1 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 enshrine New Labour’s youth justice strategy for England and Wales. Some have claimed that this is just a development of the previous Conservative government’s ideas. This article sets out to challenge this, and show the unique development of Labour thinking over the past decade, and then bring together, in the form of a review article, a wide range of published academic critique of the main components of the new legislation.

Book Review: Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70

Duff, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Stirling, on how restoration might be achieved through punishment, seem oddly out of place. In Chapter 7, which is lengthy compared with others, the authors outline a range of projects that the YOT worked with that were intended to tackle the causes of crime, including, for example, projects dealing with parenting classes, mentoring, education inclusion, employment preparation, literacy, mental health and substance misuse. Often these contain reports of positive feedback both from clients (sic) and workers, but virtually no evaluation of outcomes in terms of offending behaviour. This does not provide a very good illustration of either evidence-based or what-works practice. More disappointing is the discussion of some of the ‘findings’, which are at times superficial, uncritical and lacking in reflection. This is illustrated by the discussion of a mental health project which is described by the authors as ‘a true example of ‘joined up’’ work’ (p85). On the following page, however, with hardly a pause for breath, they go on to describe difficulties that YOT workers had in accessing rooms in which to interview young people because of serious tensions with the management of the hospital concerned. Chapter 8 discusses the introduction of the Detention and Training Order, providing in the process a depressing illustration of the failure of the Government to learn from decades of evidence about the use of custody, whilst the concluding chapters discuss what has been achieved and lessons to be learned from the introduction of YOTs. Here, at last, is some critical and perceptive discussion that puts the data presented elsewhere in the book in a broader political context and in some respects, I am tempted to suggest that those who read this book should start with carefully reading these chapters, in order better to understand the data that are presented. In spite of its limitations, however, the book is worth reading since it contains some valuable insights into this important innovation in youth justice policy that will be of interest to students and others who wish to learn more, although I suspect it contains few surprises for any who work within the system. In the end though, the question is ‘Was the introduction of the YOT a success and has it worked?’ The answer is, of course, somewhat like the book itself in its resemblance to the curate’s egg. Plus ça change . . .?

Book Review: Youth Justice: Contemporary Policy and Practice

how the removal of legal safeguards is twisted and presented as a courtesy to children’s rights (p89). The likely failure of the Parenting Orders is suggested by Mark Drakeford and Kerry McCarthy, who draw on a study of pre-sentence reports and suggest that these orders will worsen relationships between parents and their children and erode the boundaries between youth justice and mainstream services. Sharon Moore criticises the expansion of child incarceration and marshals evidence of its’ ineffectiveness; David Smith considers the problems of ‘corporatism’, or the inter-agency phenomenon first so labelled by John Pratt; and Geoff Monaghan offers a critical assessment ‘vision’ of an ideal youth justice system, and notes the shift in power towards the courts in remand and sentencing decisions. Richard Hester suggests that the concept of ‘community safety’, in its short-term quick-fix form, is unlikely to achieve the long-term aim, and Brian Williams believes that the focus on the victim in the new referral orders ‘should not disguise the punitive intent underlying this legislation’ (p189). All in all an outstanding collection, essential to anyone wishing to understand the changing face of youth justice.

Book Review: Tough Justice

focus in the main on class. Gender, whilst not absent, is certainly less prominent and only receives comparable attention in the chapter on youth lifestyles. Only passing reference is made to race, considered here to be reducible to class. Given this strong emphasis on class, and recent tendencies to use different signifiers of social stratification, some readers might have preferred that the authors justified their use of the concept more explicitly. Some readers are also likely to take issue with Furlong and Cartmel’s suggestion that the distribution of official levels of criminality between social groups does not arise from significant differences in their patterns of offending, but mainly reflects the activities of law enforcement agencies. These points aside, the text is of sufficient quality to appeal to a wide academic readership. Indeed, other researchers are likely to be able to apply Furlong and Cartmel’s theoretical template productively to analyses of their own data. Considered as a whole Young People and Social Change is undoubtedly a strong contribution to the study of both contemporary youth and ‘late-modern’ society.

Book Review: The New Youth Justice

The much awaited second edition of this essential book continues to repeat the strengths of the first (1997) edition: an emphasis on the professional ethics of working with children and young people; and the importance of the Children Act 1989 for youth justice: this being even more important as youth justice loses it’s social work links. It includes reference to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, and the practice directions on trials of children and young people in the Crown Court consequent upon the Venables and Thompson appeals. The authors remind lawyers that the child or young person is their client, not the parent, and then present a lengthy Chapter 3 on ‘the relevance of age’, teasing out all the age-specific legislation and the twists and turns as people’s ages change during proceedings. The book contains detailed guidance on all areas of youth justice practice, within a healthy critical wariness of some parts of the new legislation, and stresses the powers of a solicitor to challenge some of the denials of children’s rights. The detailed appendices contain 120 pages of extracts from the 1933, 1963, and 1969 Acts, the Bail Act and other key legislation, including most of the relevant parts of the Crime and Disorder Act and Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act, as well as Statutory Instruments and international standards, and there is a good index. No one working with young offenders in England and Wales will be able to practice effectively without this text, and anyone directly involved in the youth court will need a copy on their desk.

Book Review: New Labour, New Welfare State? The ‘Third Way’ in British Social Policy

Goldson’s two collections reviewed above, and poses some challenges to the practitioner and youth justice academic. Pickford’s lengthy introduction questions whether New Labour has succeeded in its claim to end the justice versus welfare ‘confusion’ in youth justice, and suggests that it is not possible to resolve them, as they are inherent to the issue. She offers a useful history of youth justice policy, though to my mind assigns too much theoretical intent to politicians. Did the Thatcher government really think it was following a ‘bifurcation’ policy? She then discusses the key themes of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 before concluding with an excellent review of the rest of the book. Wayne Morrison continues the theoretical approach, linking Braithwaite’s re-integrative shaming and communitarianism to identify a ‘late modernist’ youth justice, and is followed by Mark Fenwick and Keith Hayward’s ‘reconstruction of aetiology in contemporary theoretical criminology’. Seeing crime as a consumer commodity given added bonus by the thrill of transgression. Those less interested in theory will find the remainder of the book easier to follow. Elizabeth Stokes reflects on the abolition of doli incapax, arguing that it will have little practical effect and that its loss is more symbolic. Stuart Vernon offers a magistrate’s perspective on the new legislation, seeing it as a major challenge, and Dierdre Fottrell considers international law on youth justice. Issy Harvey explores youth culture and drugs and wonders how the YOT teams will reconcile likely different views about adolescent drug use. Susannah Hancock offers the best post-optimistic view yet in print about the Crime and Disorder Act and the work of the Young Offender Teams, regularly quoting Jack Straw, Alun Michael and Paul Boateng, and totally unquestioningly accepting their criticisms of the old youth justice. Two chapters on the Scottish system, by Bill Whyte and Malcolm Bentley respectively, and Matt Longson’s chapter on policing, are followed by Phil Cohen and Patrick Ainley on youth cultural studies, and finally Caroline Hunt describes and analyses an interesting ‘alternative to custody’ initiative in Delaware.