An independent review report said that it was sometimes necessary to use force to restrain children in the secure estate, where their behaviour posed a high degree of risk of harm to themselves or others. But staff and managers needed to be appropriately trained to ensure a consistent approach; the criteria by which restraint might be used should be consistent across the settings; and new techniques which took account of the problems posed by challenging behaviour were needed in young-offender institutions and secure training centres. The government accepted the report's recommendations.
Source: Peter Smallridge and Andrew Williamson, Independent Review of Restraint in Juvenile Secure Settings, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500) | The Government's Response to the Report by Peter Smallridge and Andrew Williamson of a Review of the Use of Restraint in Juvenile Secure Settings, Cm 7501, Ministry of Justice, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Response | Hansard | MOJ press release (1) | MOJ press release (2) | Nacro press release | INQUEST press release | CLC press release | Community Care report | Guardian report | Ekklesia report
Date: 2008-Dec
An article set out a framework for understanding children's rights in the youth justice system. It distinguished between the child's status and rights as offender, and the child's status and rights as child. It argued that at certain stages the child's primary status was child, and hence their rights as a child should have primacy.
Source: Kathryn Hollingsworth, 'Protecting rights at the margins of youth justice in England and Wales: intensive fostering, custody and leaving custody', Youth Justice, Volume 8 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Dec
An article analyzed data collected from youth offending teams relating to assessments of young people who might pose a risk to others. Progress in collecting relevant information for assessments had not been matched by improvements in analysis, and practitioners might not be coping very well with the challenge of undertaking complex assessments.
Source: Kerry Baker, 'Risk, uncertainty and public protection: assessment of young people who offend', British Journal of Social Work, Volume 38 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Dec
An official advisory body began consultation on the principles that should guide courts when sentencing those under the age of 18 convicted of a criminal offence.
Source: Sentencing Principles: Youths – Consultation Paper, Sentencing Advisory Panel (020 7035 5158)
Links: Consultation document | SAP press release
Date: 2008-Dec
The government published a progress report (the first of an annual series) on the range of commitments made in response to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee report of June 2007 on young black people and the criminal justice system.
Source: Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry: Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System – First Annual Report, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report examined and contrasted the life experiences of university students and former offenders. A gulf had opened between graduates, who could survive in a shrinking jobs market, and less privileged teenagers, who were left to drift into crime. All the young offenders stated that they had received little if any support from their family, their local community or the education system while growing up; and they described their local neighbourhood as a 'suffocating' environment, where crime was prevalent and a climate of fear existed within the community.
Source: Coping with Kidulthood: The hidden truth behind Britain's abandoned adolescents, Barrow Cadbury Trust (020 7391 9220)
Links: Report | BCT press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Dec
A new book examined youth justice in a United Kingdom and international context, highlighting the challenge facing all jurisdictions in balancing welfare and justice. It explored the impact of political ideas and influences on the structural and practical challenges of delivering youth justice.
Source: Bill Whyte, Youth Justice in Practice: Making a difference, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Nov
A new book examined the the government's early intervention strategy for tackling youth crime.
Source: Maggie Blyth and Enver Solomon (eds.), Prevention and Youth Crime: Is early intervention working?, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Nov
A report examined and compared different youth justice systems across Europe. It contrasted the welfare-based approach across Europe with that in the United Kingdom, where punishment was at the centre of the response to children in trouble with the law.
Source: Punishing Children: A survey of criminal responsibility and approaches across Europe, Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Summary | Ekklesia press release
Date: 2008-Nov
The number of offenders aged 10-17 in England going into the criminal justice system fell from 103,955 in 2006-07 to 93,601 in 2007-08, a drop of 7.8 per cent.
Source: First-time Entrants Aged 10-17 to the Criminal Justice System in England, 2000-01 to 2007-08, Statistical Release, Department for Children, Schools and Families (0870 000 2288)
Links: Statistical release | DCSF press release | YJB press release | Community Care report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Nov
A new book examined policy and practice on the issues raised by holding children and young people in custody.
Source: Maggie Blyth, Chris Wright and Robert Newman (eds.), Children and Young People in Custody: Managing the risk, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Nov
A report summarized the evaluation findings of phase 2 of the Youth Inclusion programme in England and Wales, which ran from April 2003 to April 2006. The programme had experienced 'mixed fortunes' in terms of its four targets. (YIPs work with children aged 8-17 at high risk of involvement in offending or anti-social behaviour.)
Source: Evaluation of the Youth Inclusion Programme: Phase 2, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales/Home Office (020 7271 3033)
Links: Report | YJB press release
Date: 2008-Nov
A study examined how 'community philosophy' could open community conversations within and between generations about 'nuisance' behaviours and the fear of crime. (Community philosophy is a form of mutual learning which emphasizes the importance of questioning and enquiry in the development of understanding.) The project studied had succeeded in developing relationships and dialogue across generations.
Source: Sue Porter and Chris Seeley, Promoting Intergenerational Understanding Through Community Philosophy, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Date: 2008-Oct
A report said that the government needed to do more to improve support for young adult offenders, in a review of progress since a 2005 study of the issue.
Source: Rob Allen, Lost in Transition: Three Years On, Barrow Cadbury Trust (020 7391 9220)
Links: Report | BCT press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Oct
A study examined territorial behaviour among young people in disadvantaged areas. Young people in many of Britain's cities were involved in territorial behaviour, often with damaging consequences: it could lead to their involvement in violent behaviour, make them fearful, and restrict their freedom of movement. In some cases it might be a route to involvement in organized gangs and serious forms of crime.
Source: Keith Kintrea, Jon Bannister, Jon Pickering, Maggie Reid and Naofumi Suzuki, Young People and Territoriality in British Cities, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report | JRF Findings
Date: 2008-Oct
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights said that the system of juvenile justice in the United Kingdom was too punitive and too little focused on rehabilitation. He criticized the overuse of child detention and the conditions for children in custody.
Source: Memorandum by Thomas Hammarberg (Commissioner for Human Rights), 17 October 2008, Council of Europe (+33 0388 412033)
Links: Memorandum | Council of Europe press release
Date: 2008-Oct
A new book examined the emergence, nature, and impact of armed youth gangs in an East London borough over the previous decade. It described the challenges these armed young men and women posed to their communities, those charged with preventing crime, and those struggling to vouchsafe 'community safety'.
Source: John Pitts, Reluctant Gangsters: The changing face of youth crime, Willan Publishing (01884 840337)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Sep
A think-tank report said that there was no evidence base to support the assertion that youth mentoring raised educational attainment or helped to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. Mentors were too often inexperienced, unsuited to the task, barely trained, and lightly supervised – yet were expected to turn round the lives of some of the most troubled youths.
Source: Richard Meier, Youth Mentoring: A Good Thing?, Centre for Policy Studies (020 7222 4488)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Sep
A report said that the number of children and young people imprisoned in England and Wales was the third highest in Europe – despite the fact that custody for children was expensive and ineffective.
Source: Locking Up or Giving Up? Is custody for children always the right answer?, Barnardo's (01268 520224)
Links: Report | Barnardo's press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Sep
An article examined the Children's Fund programme in England (aimed at reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour). It drew attention to uncertainties and tensions in the relationship between risk-based crime prevention interventions and initiatives addressing broader aspects of young people's social exclusion.
Source: Paul Mason and David Prior, 'The Children's Fund and the prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour', Criminology and Criminal Justice, Volume 8 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Aug
An article examined the numbers and proportion of the population in England and Wales who had been convicted of a crime between the ages of 10 and 25. There was a remarkable decline among the 10-15 age group for more recent cohorts, which echoed the increasing use of court diversionary procedures in this age group. There was no corresponding increase in conviction rates for the later age groups. These figures suggested that efforts in the 1980s and early 1990s to divert offenders away from court convictions had been successful, and that such diversionary schemes needed to be encouraged.
Source: Keith Soothill, Elizabeth Ackerley and Brian Francis, 'Criminal convictions among children and young adults: changes over time', Criminology and Criminal Justice, Volume 8 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Aug
A report highlighted the rise in numbers of young people being placed in custody, and the need for more effective alternatives. It called for a radical new approach involving community justice centres to deliver intensive one-to-one working with young offenders and their families, and local community sentences to reduce youth offending.
Source: Unlocking Potential: Alternatives to custody for young people, 4Children (020 7512 2100) and Barnardo's
Links: Report | 4C press release
Date: 2008-Jul
The Youth Justice Board published its annual report for 2007-08.
Source: Annual Report & Accounts 2007/08, HC 897,Youth Justice Board for England and Wales/Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | YJB press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A report presented the headline findings from the 2006 Offending, Crime and Justice Survey. It described levels and trends in youth offending, anti-social behaviour, and victimization among young people aged 10-25 living in private households in England and Wales. Over three-quarters (78 per cent) of young people had not committed any of the 20 core offences covered by the survey in the previous 12 months. There had been no change in levels of offending (including serious and frequent offending) since the survey started in 2003.
Source: Stephen Roe and Jane Ashe, Young People and Crime: Findings from the 2006 Offending, Crime and Justice Survey, Statistical Bulletin 09/08, Home Office (020 7273 2084)
Links: Bulletin
Date: 2008-Jul
An article examined the association between local authority care and offending behaviour. Although a greater number of young people in care had committed offences than in the general population, the vast majority were law-abiding. For those who did offend, the care episode itself was unlikely to have been the sole cause of their delinquency. The services offered once the young people entered local authority care did not succeed in combating established offending behaviour, and initiatives targeted in the community prior to entry to care might be more effective.
Source: Iain Darker, Harriet Ward and Laura Caulfield, 'An analysis of offending by young people looked after by local authorities', Youth Justice, Volume 8 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Jul
Researchers examined the characteristics that were associated with young children's involvement in anti-social and other problem behaviours. It highlighted the characteristics associated with 'resilience' – non-involvement by those in 'at risk' groups.
Source: Erica Bowen, Jon Heron and Colin Steer, Anti-social and Other Problem Behaviours Among Young Children: Findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, Online Report 02/08, Home Office (web publication only)
Links: Report | Findings (1) | Findings (2)
Date: 2008-Jul
The Court of Appeal quashed government rules extending the use of physical restraint on young offenders in secure training centres. As a result restraint would once again only be lawful to prevent trainees escaping, damaging property, or harming themselves or others -not simply to maintain 'good order and discipline'.
Source: R (C) v Secretary of State for Justice, Court of Appeal 28 July 2008
Links: YJB press release | OCC press release | EHRC press release | INQUEST press release | CLC press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jul
The government published an action plan designed to tackle youth crime. It said that although overall youth crime remained stable, challenges remained – particularly around alcohol-related crime, delinquent peer groups and gangs, and young people carrying knives. It put forward a wide-ranging package of enforcement and prevention measures, as well as more support for parents to tackle offending and reduce re-offending.
Source: Youth Crime Action Plan 2008, Home Office (0870 000 1585) and other departments
Links: Plan | Hansard | Home Office press release | YJB press release | PRT press release | OCC press release | Barnardos press release | NCH press release | NCB press release | Turning Point press release | ACPO press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Community Care report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3) | FT report | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2008-Jul
A report examined the problems of gun and knife violence. The average age of victims and perpetrators of street violence involving weapons was falling, and the number of children and young people carrying knives was increasing. Tackling the problem should be an urgent national priority: this would need co-ordinated and strategic leadership from the centre; effective enforcement to help reduce the attraction of knife and gang culture; and effective intervention and youth services on the ground to divert those young people most at risk.
Source: Cherie Booth et al., The Street Weapons Commission Report, Channel 4 (0845 076 0191)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jul
An article said that one major cause of the difference in the level of violence among young people in England and Sweden was that more young people in England had a higher crime propensity and were living criminogenic lifestyles than in Sweden.
Source: Per-Olof Wikström and Robert Svensson, 'Why are English youths more violent than Swedish youths? A comparative study of the role of crime propensity, lifestyles and their interactions in two cities', European Journal of Criminology, Volume 5 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Jul
The police service inspectorate in Scotland recommended an overhaul of the way children were treated by the law. It said that children should only be detained in custody with permission from a high-ranking officer.
Source: Care of Detained and Arrested Children, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland (web publication only)
Links: Report | SG press release
Date: 2008-Jun
The Scottish Government published a strategy designed to tackle the causes and effects of offending by young people, based on prevention, and on early and effective intervention.
Source: Preventing Offending by Young People: A framework for action, Scottish Government (web publication only)
Links: Strategy | LTS press release
Date: 2008-Jun
The government published an action plan designed to stop young people drinking in public; help them make the right decisions about alcohol; and provide clear information to parents and young people about the risks of early drinking.
Source: Youth Alcohol Action Plan, Cm 7387, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522), Home Office and Department of Health
Links: Action plan | DCSF press release | Alcohol Concern press release | Turning Point press release | NCH press release | RCP press release | ACPO press release | Portman Group press release | Guardian report | BBC report | Telegraph report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jun
A briefing paper set out twelve ways to reduce the number of children in custody. It said that there should be higher hurdles before imposing custodial sentences on non-violent offenders; that technical breaches of community orders or tagging should be punished without locking children up; and that the child detention budget should be transferred to local authorities.
Source: Criminal Damage: Why we should lock up fewer children, Prison Reform Trust (020 7251 5070)
Links: Briefing | YJB press release | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jun
A report said that attempts to label youth violence as a 'gang problem' might be stopping the police and youth services from taking effective preventative action, and risked criminalizing all young people - especially young black men.
Source: Claire Alexander, (Re)thinking 'Gangs', Runnymede Trust (020 7377 9222)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jun
An article examined the impact of educational attainment on juvenile conviction rates, using information at local education authority level in England. An increase in educational attainment between cohorts was associated with reductions in conviction rates for most offences, although not for violent crime. Reductions in poverty were associated with decreasing conviction rates for violent crime, criminal damage, and drug-related offences: whereas increasing unauthorized time away from school was associated with higher conviction rates for theft.
Source: Ricardo Sabates, 'Educational attainment and juvenile crime: area-level evidence using three cohorts of young people', British Journal of Criminology, Volume 48 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-May
An article examined the family group conference project for young offenders within a large social services department. The views of all participants were positive, with the majority saying they would recommend the approach to others.
Source: Robin Mutter, David Shemmings, Paul Dugmore and Mina Hyare, 'Family group conferences in youth justice', Health and Social Care in the Community, Volume 16 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-May
The government announced a series of measures to tackle anti-social behaviour, with an increased emphasis on preventative measures rather than the use of anti-social behaviour orders. Courts would be required to consider making a parenting order when giving an ASBO to children aged 10-17.
Source: Press release 8 May 2008, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Home Office press release | Speech | ACPO press release | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-May
The number of offences in 2006-07 by children and young people aged 10-17 was 295,129 – an increase of 2.5 per cent since 2003-04, but a decrease of 2.2 per cent since 2005-06. The number of offences committed by young men fell by 2 per cent when compared to 2003-04: but over the same period the number of offences committed by young women rose by 25 per cent.
Source: Youth Justice Annual Workload Data 2006/07, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales/Home Office (020 7271 3033)
Links: Report | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-May
An official advisory body began consultation on sentencing for breaches of anti-social behaviour orders. It said that sentences should first and foremost reflect the level of harassment, alarm, or distress caused by an offender. The most serious cases – in which first-time adult offenders used violence or intimidation, made significant threats, or targeted individual or groups in a way that provoked fear of violence – should attract custodial sentences of up to 2 years.
Source: Breach of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order: Consultation Guideline, Sentencing Guidelines Council (020 7411 5551)
Links: Consultation document | SAP advice | SGC press release
Date: 2008-May
A government minister said that all parents of children under 16 engaging in consistent anti-social behaviour should be named and identified, and obliged 'at the very least' to attend compulsory parenting classes.
Source: Comments by Ivan Lewis MP (Minister for Care Services), Daily Telegraph, 26 May 2008
Links: Telegraph report
Date: 2008-May
A report drew together key findings from the second phase of a national evaluation of the On Track programme (2003-2006). None of the findings proved that On Track itself resulted in changes at any level: there were many possible competing drivers of change, not least of which was the proliferation of other community-based initiatives co-located in On Track areas. Nonetheless it was concluded that the presence of On Track was likely to have been an influential factor in reducing risk factors and boosting protective factors for children and parents. (On Track was an area-based initiative operating in high-crime, high-deprivation areas of England and Wales, designed to reduce the propensity for youth crime and anti-social behaviour in high-risk populations.)
Source: Deborah Ghate, Kirsten Asmussen, Yang Tian and Hanan Hauari, 'On Track' Phase Two National Evaluation: Reducing Risk and Increasing Resilience – How Did 'On Track' Work?, Research Report 35, Department for Children, Schools and Families (0845 602 2260)
Date: 2008-May
A report said that wide-ranging youth justice reforms had had no measurable impact on levels of self-reported youth offending. Despite substantial investment in radically restructuring and expanding the youth justice system, success had been far more mixed and ambiguous than claimed by the government.
Source: Enver Solomon and Richard Garside, Ten Years of Labour's Youth Justice Reforms: An independent audit, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies/King's College London (020 7848 1688)
Links: Report | CCJS press release | YJB press release | Barnardos press release | NCH press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Telegraph report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-May
An article said that understandings of anti-social behaviour were highly dependent on people's behavioural expectations for a particular space and time, and also by social and cultural norms of 'aesthetic acceptability'.
Source: Andrew Millie, 'Anti-social behaviour, behavioural expectations and an urban aesthetic', British Journal of Criminology, Volume 48 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-May
A survey of young people found that fear, image, and a need for protection were among the reasons why they and their peers got involved in gun and knife crime. Many young people and children felt unsafe in their own communities, felt personally affected by gun and knife crime, or knew someone affected.
Source: 'Step Inside Our Shoes': Young people's views on gun and knife crime, NCH (020 7704 7000)
Links: Report | NCH press release | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Apr
A report said that more and more children and young people were being brought into the criminal justice system in order to satisfy police targets. Offences which would previously have been considered minor – and dealt with informally by the police, school, or young person's family – were being dealt with through formal sanctions.
Source: Some Facts About Children and Young People Who Offend, National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (020 7582 6500)
Links: NACRO press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Apr
A think-tank report examined the critical role innovation could play in reducing offending among young people. It called for wide-ranging systematic innovation to deal more directly with the causes of offending – in particular in relation to skills, psychology, and new opportunities – while creating a joined-up way of combining punishment with crime reduction.
Source: Escape from the Titanic, Young Foundation (020 8980 6263)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Apr
An article examined reported research with young offenders who were the subjects of referral orders. There was a significant difference between the theory of restorative justice and its use in practice. To some extent, New Labour's emphasis on the criminal justice system had missed the point behind the ideology of restorative justice and the wider opportunities it offered for a 'pro-actively restorative' society.
Source: Alex Newbury, 'Youth crime: whose responsibility?', Journal of Law and Society, Volume 35 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Mar
The government announced an action plan aimed at intervening early enough to stop children adopting criminal behaviour. Schools, social workers, and doctors would be asked to identify pupils – as young as 10 – whose behaviour was threatening to became criminal. The children concerned would be assigned to a mentor, and required to sign contracts designed to improve their behaviour.
Source: Youth Taskforce Action Plan, Department for Children, Schools and Families (0845 602 2260)
Links: Action plan | Hansard | DCSF press release | ECM press release | YJB press release | NCH press release | Rainer press release | Nacro press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report | Community Care report | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2008-Mar
A report by a joint committee of MPs and peers called for an end to painful restraint methods used on children aged 12-17 held in custody in privately run detention facilities.
Source: The Use of Restraint in Secure Training Centres, Eleventh Report (Session 2007-08), HC 378 and HL 65, Joint Committee on Human Rights (House of Lords and House of Commons) Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | INQUEST press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Mar
An article examined the intellectual basis for New Labour's policy of holding parents to account for the misconduct of their children. The government had relied too heavily on an ill-defined conception of responsibility, while failing to address the underlying causes of anti-social behaviour.
Source: Laurence Koffman, 'Holding parents to account: tough on children, tough on the causes of children?', Journal of Law and Society, Volume 35 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Mar
An article examined social and penal policy responses to risk, with particular attention to how policies of 'responsibilization' had implications for rights, leading to an increased emphasis upon conditional rights. It explored the implications for youth justice practice, and the possibility for practitioner resistance to existing policy responses to 'problematic' and 'risky' youth.
Source: Hazel Kemshall, 'Risks, rights and justice: understanding and responding to youth risk', Youth Justice, Volume 8 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Mar
The government published an action plan designed to enhance safety in the secure estate for children and young people. It followed coroners' inquests into the deaths of two young people (Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood) in custody.
Source: The Government's Response to Coroners' Recommendations Following the Inquests of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Action plan | Hansard
Date: 2008-Mar
Researchers found 'robust evidence' of an association between educational inequality and some forms of juvenile crime, notably violent and racially motivated crime.
Source: Ricardo Sabates, Leon Feinstein and Anirudh Shingal, Educational Inequality and Juvenile Crime: An area-based analysis, Research Report 26, Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning/University of London (020 7612 6291)
Links: Report | Brief | IOE press release | NUT press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Feb
A think-tank report called for a more therapeutic and family-based approach to youth offending. 'Sure Start Plus' centres should be introduced for children aged 5-12 to support those children most at risk of turning to crime and anti-social behaviour.
Source: Julia Margo, Make Me a Criminal: Preventing youth crime, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100)
Links: Report | IPPR press release | Telegraph report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Feb
A report criticized the lack of formal support offered to detained children by the Parole Board in England and Wales, which it said could lead to parole being refused. It outlined proposals to help establish a separate parole process for children and young people.
Source: Parole 4 Kids: A review of the parole process for children in England and Wales, Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jan