Youth Justice

Policy and practice developments in the field of youth justice have become highly politicised across the UK. The growing demand for greater transparency of outcomes sets new challenges for practitioners who have to marry direction from research with practice experience. A better dialogue is needed between practitioners and researchers to support the generation of a wide range of meaningful data on what is likely to be effective, with whom and in what situations. This paper examines issues of responding effectively to youth crime by drawing key messages from the research literature.

The UK Government’s White Paper ‘No More Excuses’ (Home Office, 1997) set out plans for changing the culture of the Youth Court. This article focuses on one crucial aspect of the reform plans: the idea that magistrates need to engage with young offenders and their families. After a theoretical analysis of the foundation and justification for a special youth court, the article presents some findings concerning differences between the communication cultures of English/Welsh and Dutch Youth Courts. The article concludes by questioning the basic assumption of the White Paper, that fundamental changes could be realised without structural reform.

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (CDA) s. 38(4)(a) required local authorities to ensure the provision of appropriate adults for young people and CDA s. 39(7)(a) provided that it was Youth Offending Teams’ duty to co-ordinate such provision. Bearing in mind the virtual absence of any guidance, the first published national survey of Youth Offending Team managers was conducted to determine the nature of appropriate adult arrangements. This article reports on the issues that emerged concerning management, protocols, recruitment and selection, training, monitoring and support, which will be of particular interest to those engaged in the establishment and maintenance of appropriate adult services. Of broader interest, this article concludes that as appropriate adult arrangements differ between Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) across England and Wales, the nature and quality of services for young people in police custody inevitably varies.