The Criminalisation Of Youth

Transformations to the criminal justice system in Western societies are often linked with broader social and cultural changes, and this work presents the recent changes in juvenile justice in Canada and nine European countries and the sociopolitical context in which they take place. The study provides a comparison of the sentencing practices of each country, focusing on three dimensions related to the sanction practices: the custodial sanctions, the alternative sanctions, and the extension of the judicial thinking into relative fields such as school, training, and social policies. With clear and thoroughly developed research methods, this analysis illustrates that changes in juvenile justice policies are not specifically the result of differences in crime rates or the evolution of deviant youth behavior, but rather the effect of complex interactions with a variety of social, economical, cultural, and political factors.

The Criminalisation and Exploitation of Children in Care explores the results of a recent qualitative study, which focused on multi-agency responses to children and young people in residential and foster care who were at risk of criminalisation and/or exploitation and abuse. Recent high-profile reports have highlighted an urgent need for effective multi-agency work to tackle the issues of criminalisation and exploitation of children and young people in care. However, progress to date has been slow, and it is clear that there is still some way to go before effective multi-agency working becomes widespread. In response, this book draws upon the experiences and perspectives of practitioners from a sample of co-located Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs, as well as the latest research, theory and policy developments in the field. In doing so, it explores both the benefits and challenges of multi-agency working and concludes with recommendations for future policy and practice. This timely study will be of great interest to students and scholars of criminology, criminal justice, policing studies, social work, health and childhood studies. It will also be a valuable tool for practitioners and policymakers in the criminal, youth justice and social service arenas.

Youth Policy and Social Inclusion takes a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to identify and analyze the factors which promote or discourage social inclusion of young people in society today.

How is the modern world shaping young people and youth crime? What impact is this having on the latest policies and practice? Are current youth justice services working? With contributions from leading researchers in the field, this book offers an insightful, scholarly and critical analysis of such key issues. Youth Offending and Youth Justice engages constructively with current policy and practice debates, tackling issues such as the criminalisation and penalisation of youth, sentencer decision-making, the incarceration of young people and the role of public opinion. It also features an applied focus on professional practice. Drawing on a wide range of high-quality research, this book will enrich the work of practitioners, managers, policy-makers, students and academics in social work, youth work, criminal justice and youth justice in the UK and beyond.

The Criminalisation and Exploitation of Children in Care explores the results of a recent qualitative study, which focused on multi-agency responses to children and young people in residential and foster care who were at risk of criminalisation and/or exploitation and abuse. Recent high-profile reports have highlighted an urgent need for effective multi-agency work to tackle the issues of criminalisation and exploitation of children and young people in care. However, progress to date has been slow, and it is clear that there is still some way to go before effective multi-agency working becomes widespread. In response, this book draws upon the experiences and perspectives of practitioners from a sample of co-located Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs, as well as the latest research, theory and policy developments in the field. In doing so, it explores both the benefits and challenges of multi-agency working and concludes with recommendations for future policy and practice. This timely study will be of great interest to students and scholars of criminology, criminal justice, policing studies, social work, health and childhood studies. It will also be a valuable tool for practitioners and policymakers in the criminal, youth justice and social service arenas.

This book represents the first major analysis of Anglo-Australian youth justice and penality to be published and it makes significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the wider field of comparative criminology. By exploring trends in law, policy and practice over a forty-year period, the book critically surveys the ‘moving images’ of youth justice regimes and penal cultures, the principal drivers of reform, the core outcomes of such processes and the overall implications for theory building. It addresses a wide range of questions including: How has the temporal and spatial patterning of youth justice and penality evolved since the early 1980s to the present time? What impacts have legislative and policy reforms imposed upon processes of criminalisation, sentencing practices and the use of penal detention for children and young people? How do we comprehend both the diverse ways in which public representations of ‘young offenders’ are shaped, structured and disseminated and the varied, conflicting and contradictory effects of such representations? To what extent do international human rights standards influence law, policy and practice in the realms of youth justice and penality? To what extent are youth justice systems implicated in the production and reproduction of social injustices? How, and to what degree, are youth justice systems and penal cultures internationalised, nationalised, regionalised or localised? The book is essential reading for researchers, students and tutors in criminology, criminal justice, law, social policy, sociology and youth studies.

`Youth Crime and Justice presents a detailed and comprehensive critical analysis of evidence from leading national and international scholars. As such it provides a powerful antidote to the excesses of contemporary correctionalism' - Professor Andrew Rutherford, University of Southampton `Youth Crime and Justice is the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection on the market today. A must for all researchers, teachers and students of youth justice' - Professor Tim Newburn, London School of Economics and Political Science and President of the British Society of Criminology For the first time, leading national and international scholars have been brought together to engage explicitly with a comprehensive critical assessment of the relation between 'evidence' and contemporary youth justice policy formation. This book, along with its companion volume Comparative Youth Justice (edited by John Muncie and Barry Goldson) , will significantly advance the development of an emerging 'youth criminology'. The book is essential reading for criminology and criminal justice students, researchers and practitioners. Contributors' Affiliations: Tim Bateman is a Senior Policy Development Officer with Nacro, a UK-based crime reduction agency Chris Cunneen is Professor of Criminology and Director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney Matthew Follett is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Leicester Loraine Gelsthorpe is a Reader in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge Barry Goldson is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool, England. Kevin Haines is Head of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Swansea Lynn Hancock is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool Harry Hendrick is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern Denmark Gordon Hughes is Professor of Criminology at the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University Fergus McNeill is a Senior Lecturer at the Glasgow School of Social Work, Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Phil Mizen is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Warwick John Muncie is Professor of Criminology and Co-Director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University David O'Mahony is a Senior Lecturer in Youth Justice at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast Gilly Sharpe is a Doctoral Research Student at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge David Smith is Professor of Criminology at Lancaster University Roger Smith is a Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Leicester Colin Webster is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Teesside Rob White is Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Tasmania