This book offers a clear and comprehensive guide to youth justice practice based on a solid grounding of academic research and in-depth understanding of how the youth justice system operates. Lessons from the past, current challenges and new directions are all explored. The book provides a judicious balance between an analysis of past policy and practical strategies for present day issues such as parental responsibility, risk and restorative justice.

This book offers a clear and comprehensive guide to youth justice practice based on a solid grounding of academic research and in-depth understanding of how the youth justice system operates. Lessons from the past, current challenges and new directions are all explored. The book provides a judicious balance between an analysis of past policy and practical strategies for present day issues such as parental responsibility, risk and restorative justice.

Youth crime remains an enduring and growing problem, and has been the subject of a raft of recent government policy initiatives. This book provides a comprehensive, up to date and critical overview of the youth justice system, taking full account of the many changes that have been introduced - in particular the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and its subsequent implementation. A major aim of the book will be to help youth justice practitioners and others studying youth crime and youth justice to make sense of these changes, to assess their implications for practice and to understand some of the tensions and complexities that have arisen. The book begins by setting the youth justice system in its broader historical and contemporary context, moving on to assess the impact of political ideologies on the structures (such as the Youth Justice Board and Youth Offending Teams) and processes (including anti-social behaviour strategies, restorative justice and more intensive community interventions). which compromise youth justice as it is currently delivered. The book goes on to argue that the failings of current policy, organisational frameworks and delivery mechanisms have had a cumulative and damaging effect, resulting in an over-reliance on intrusive, oppressive and counter-productive measures of control.Against this backdrop, the book explores some of the unerlying theoretical issues concerning young people and crime, and then sets out some of the principles which should underpin positive policies and practice with young people in trouble. Finally, it draws together some of the evidence from current initiatives, domestically and internationally, to suggest that it remains possible both to envision and to deliver a youth justice system which is liberal, humane and progressive.

′In this pathbreaking volume Muncie and Goldson bring together leading authors to examine and compare youth justice systems around the world. Comparative Youth Justice will be of interest to all criminologists concerned with comparative penal policy and will be essential to all scholars of youth justice′ - Professor Tim Newburn, London School of Economics and Political Science and President of the British Society of Criminology ′Comparative Youth Justice is what we need in an era of hardening social policies and irresponsible political demagoguery: thoughtful critiques, comparative analysis, and a commitment to the rights of youth. John Muncie and Barry Goldson have done a fine job of bringing together a group of commentators who know the inner workings of juvenile justice and what it will take to change the current law and order model. A book that is required reading for practitioners, professors, policy makers, researchers, and students concerned about the bankrupt state of juvenile justice and willing to consider new ideas and directions′ - Tony Platt, California State University, Sacramento With contributions from leading commentators from 13 different countries, this carefully integrated edited collection comprises the most authoritive comparative analysis of international youth justice currently available. However, Comparative Youth Justice is not simply an attempt to document national similarities and differences, but looks critically at how global trends are translated at the local level. This book also examines how youth justice is implemented in practice with a view to promoting change as well as reflection. Each chapter addresses key critical issues: - the degree of compliance with international law; - the extent of repenalistion; - adulteration; - tolerance; - the impact of experiments in restoration and risk management. This book is designed as a companion volume to Youth Crime and Justice, edited by Barry Goldson and John Muncie, published simultaneously by SAGE Publications. ′This is a brilliant set of edited volumes that will be an indispensable and timely source of information and analysis for anyone with an interest in issues of youth justice and comparative criminology.′ David A. Green, Oxford University

This Dictionary explicitly addresses the historical, legal, theoretical, organisational, policy, practice, research and evidential contexts within which 'modern' youth justice in the UK and beyond is located. The entries cover a spectrum of theoretical orientations and conceptual perspectives and engage explicitly with the key statutory provisions and policy and practice imperatives within each of the three UK jurisdictions. This book is a key resource for those teaching and studying under-graduate and post-graduate courses in criminology, criminal justice, sociology, social policy, law, socio-legal studies, community justice, social work, youth and community work and police studies, together with policy-makers, managers and practitioners working within the youth justice sphere (including staff training officers, youth justice officers, social workers, probation officers, police officers, teachers and education workers, health professionals, youth workers, drug and alcohol workers and juvenile secure estate staff). The Dictionary of Youth Justice: is designed to meet the needs of researchers, policy-makers, managers, practitioners and students; begins with an introductory chapter that maps the key shifts in contemporary national and international youth justice systems; contains over 300 alphabetically arranged entries - written by almost 100 experts in the respective fields - that explicitly address the core components of youth justice in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland; Provides specifically tailored recommended key texts and sources in respect of each entry; is closely cross-referenced and contains a detailed index to assist readers to make connections between and across entries; includes a detailed 'Directory of Agencies' that relate to youth justice in each of the three UK jurisdictions; is compiled and edited by one of the UK's leading authorities in youth justice.

Public authorities have a duty to ensure looked after children are not at greater risk of being drawn into the criminal justice system than other children. The relevant authorities must continue to support looked after children and care leavers when they are in, and when they leave, custody. The substantial decrease since 2006/07 in the number of young people entering the criminal justice system for the first time is welcomed but looked after children have not benefited from this shift to the same extent as other children. The Youth Justice Board has done excellent work to halve the youth custodial population over the past decade but continues to spend £246 million a year detaining a small fraction of young offenders. Recommendations include: a statutory threshold to enshrine in legislation the principle that only the most serious and prolific young offenders should be placed in custody; devolving the custody budget to enable local authorities to invest in effective alternatives to custody; and more action to reduce the number of young people who breach the terms of their community sentences and the number of young black men in custody. The aim of improving the basic literacy of offenders, as outlined in the Transforming Youth Custody consultation paper is endorsed, but is it most useful to focus resources on the secure estate, given that the average length of stay is currently 79 days? The greater focus should be on improving transition between custody and the community, and on improving provision in the community and incentivising schools and colleges to take back difficult students.

This book explores the factors at the individual, institutional and systemic levels which contribute to children's home residents coming to the attention of the youth justice system, and the consequent implications for policy and practice. Perspectives are drawn from both young people and professionals in the care and youth justice systems.