A report examined the feasibility of establishing a youth court in Scotland. It recommended a system allowing dedicated youth court sheriffs to review an offender s progress throughout their order, and multi-disciplinary teams to supervise young offenders and provide a flexible new range of programmes - including elements of reparation and support services - which are able to address the whole of the young person s needs.
Source: Youth Court Feasibility Project Group Report, Justice Department/Scottish Executive (0131 244 5434)
Links: Report (pdf) | Report
Date: 2002-Dec
A leading children's charity announced that it is to hold an inquiry into youth crime in Scotland. The inquiry, to be chaired by the former Bishop of Edinburgh, will examine evidence of the successes and failures of youth justice policy and come up with proposals on the best way forward.
Source: Press release 2.12.02, NCH (0845 7626579)
Links: Press release
Date: 2002-Dec
A report contained the results of the first comprehensive study to examine all of the services involved in dealing with offending by young people in Scotland. The report looked at how some 240 million is spent, and made 38 recommendations for action.
Source: Dealing with Offending by Young People, Auditor General/Accounts Commission (0131 477 1234)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2002-Dec
The government announced that it is considering placing persistent young offenders with specially trained foster parents to give them a stable family environment.
Source: Press release 14.11.02, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Press release
Date: 2002-Nov
Juvenile prisons are suffering from 'serious turbulence' as a result of overcrowding, according to the chair of the Youth Justice Board. At the end of October 2002, the juvenile secure estate was operating at 97 per cent of its capacity.
Source: Community Care, 21.11.02
Links: Community Care article
Date: 2002-Nov
The High Court ruled that children under 18 held in prison are protected by the Children Act 1989.
Source: R (Howard League for Penal Reform) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, 29.11.02
Links: Law report | Community Care article
Date: 2002-Nov
A degree in youth justice is to be developed by the Youth Justice Board, as part of efforts to support the youth justice profession and help tackle recruitment problems.
Source: Press release 14.11.02, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (020 7271 3033)
Links: YJB press release
Date: 2002-Nov
A report summarised the key concerns and recommendations of 31 prisons inspectorate reports on young offender institutions published between January 1998 and October 2001.
Source: Rachel Hodgkin, Rethinking Child Imprisonment, Children's Rights Alliance for England (020 7278 8222)
Links: Press release
Date: 2002-Nov
The government said it will give courts the power to make a parenting order when a young offender pleads guilty to a first time offence and is referred to a youth offending panel. It also said it wants more parenting orders to be issued with anti-social behaviour orders.
Source: Press release 23.10.02, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Press release
Date: 2002-Oct
A new book examined the range of issues facing children in secure accommodation and Young Offender Institutions.
Source: Barry Goldson, Vulnerable Inside: Children in secure and penal settings, Children s Society (020 7841 4415)
Links: Press release
Date: 2002-Oct
The government announced that funding for Youth Inclusion Programmes will be extended for a further three years, to March 2006. (The programmes each target 50 young people aged 13-16, in the most deprived neighbourhoods in England and Wales, who are most at risk of social exclusion.)
Source: Press release 21.10.02, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Press release
Date: 2002-Oct
A study found that a programme in central Scotland has had a positive impact on offending and anti-social behaviour among vulnerable children, as well as on their physical health, parental management and support, school attainment and behaviour at school.
Source: Gill McIvor with Kristina Moodie, Evaluation of the Matrix Project, Scottish Executive (web publication only)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2002-Oct
Research reportedly found that 30,000 people are involved in violent street gangs, and that the number of those involved who are under 16 has risen sharply.
Source: Research by Steve Shropshire and others, reported in The Observer, 8.9.02
Links: Observer article
Date: 2002-Sep
New powers were extended to courts across the country (from 16 September 2002), allowing them the option of remanding into custody persistent offenders aged 12-16, as an alternative to bail. Campaigners attacked the measure, saying that more than half the children put on remand in prison are later either found not guilty or given a community sentence.
Source: Press release 13.9.02, Home Office (020 7273 4000) | Press release 16.9.02, Children's Society (020 7841 4415)
Links: Home Office press release | Children's Society press release
See also: Journal of Social Policy Volume 31/4, Digest 124, paragraph 6.3
Date: 2002-Sep
The Youth Justice Board expressed concern over continuing wide disparities in the use of custodial sentences for young offenders by courts in different parts of the country; it said there was no clear relationship between the use of custody and the gravity of offences committed.
Source: Press release 5.9.02, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (020 7271 3033)
Links: No link
Date: 2002-Sep
Campaigners accused the government of breaching the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, over conditions for young people aged 15 to 17 held in prison.
Source: Children in Prison, Barred Rights: An Independent Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Press release
See also: Journal of Social Policy Volume 31/2, Digest 122, paragraph 6.4
Date: 2002-Sep
A report identified problems in the care of young offenders with mental health problems, including inadequate screening and assessment, lack of staff training, insufficient funding, limited treatment options and a lack of research.
Source: Ann Hagell, The Mental Health of Young Offenders, Mental Health Foundation (020 7802 0300)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2002-Aug
The government's pledge to halve the time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders was achieved, falling from an average time of 142 days in 1997 to 67 days in the first quarter of 2002. But the Youth Justice Board Chairman was reported as expressing concern over the increasing number of children aged 12-13 held in custody.
Source: Building on Success: Annual Review 2001-02, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (020 7271 3033) | The Independent, 9.7.02
Links: Hansard | Independent article
See also: Journal of Social Policy Volume 30/2, Digest 118, paragraph 6.4
Date: 2002-Jul
The Lord Chief Justice defended the principle of reducing the minimum term (though not the sentence) served by young offenders convicted of murder, in cases where there has been a significant change in an offender's attitude and behaviour.
Source: Review of Minimum Terms Set for Young Offenders Detained at her Majesty's Pleasure, Lord Chief Justice, available from Court Service (020 7210 2266)
Links: Statement
Date: 2002-Jul
Researchers for the Home Office said 'Splash Extra' schemes, designed to reduce youth offending during summer holidays, have no appreciable effect: but the Youth Justice Board claimed their research shows they do.
Source: Camille Loxley, Liz Curtin and Rick Brown, Summer Splash Schemes 2000: Findings from Six Case Studies, Crime Reduction Research Series Paper 12, Home Office (020 7273 2084) | Press statement 22.7.02, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (020 7271 3033)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | YJB press release
See also: Journal of Social Policy Volume 31/2, Digest 122, paragraph 6.4
Date: 2002-Jul
The final report was published of a study into the impact of referral orders for young offenders.
Source: Tim Newburn et al., The Introduction of Referral Orders into the Youth Justice System: Final Report, Research Study 242, Home Office (020 7273 2084)
Links: Study (pdf)
See also: Journal of Social Policy Volume 31/4, Digest 124, paragraph 6.3
Date: 2002-Jul
Parenting programmes resulted in a cut of a third in offending by children of those on the programmes, research found.
Source: Deborah Ghate and Marcelo Ramella, Positive Parenting: National evaluation of the Youth Justice Board s Parenting Programme, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (020 7271 3033)
Links: Report (pdf)
See also: Journal of Social Policy Volume 31/1, Digest 121, paragraph 3.5
Date: 2002-Jul
A government target to cut reconviction rates for juvenile offenders by 5 per cent between 1997 and 2004 was met within three years.
Source: D. Jennings, One Year Juvenile Reconviction Rates: July 2000 Cohort, Home Office (0870 000 1585) and Office for National Statistics
Links: Report (pdf)
See also: Journal of Social Policy Volume 31/3, Digest 123 (paragraph 6.3)
Date: 2002-Jun
The government announced electronic tagging for juveniles on the community part of detention and training orders (29 May 2002).
Source: Press release 23.5.02, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Home Office press release
See also: Journal of Social Policy Volume 31/4, Digest 124 (paragraph 6.3)
Date: 2002-May