Age, Development and the Changing Norms of Youth Justice
| Published date | 01 December 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14732254241297811 |
| Author | Ursula Kilkelly,Stefaan Pleysier |
| Date | 01 December 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14732254241297811
Youth Justice
2024, Vol. 24(3) 339 –344
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/14732254241297811
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Age, Development and the Changing
Norms of Youth Justice
Ursula Kilkelly and Stefaan Pleysier
It is an obvious fact that ‘youth’ is a defining characteristic of youth justice comprising
both age and stage of development as its twin elements. At the same time, it is perhaps
curious that states use ‘age’ and ‘development’ differently in their response to children in
conflict with the law, often using age as a factor that limits or excludes the law’s protec-
tions, while ‘development’ is taken into account in a manner that expands or softens the
harsher impacts of the justice system. This editorial considers whether, in an area of com-
plexity, inconsistency and contradiction, inter-disciplinary research can add some mean-
ing to how factors of ‘age’ and ‘development’ impact on the norms of youth justice and
the treatment of children in conflict with the law.
Age and Youth Justice
Almost all jurisdictions recognize the relevance of age to the administration of justice,
and yet there is very little uniformity as states take different approaches informed by a
myriad of factors. Some states treat criminal responsibility as a question of whether the
child has the capacity to form mens rea, while others consider it related to the more prag-
matic question of the age at which a child can or should be prosecuted (Goldson, 2009).
Even if this variety can be considered legitimate based on legal, social, historical and
cultural norms, the lack of a consistent approach to the use of age in criminal responsibil-
ity frustrates the consensus on which international youth justice norms are based. This
absence of uniformity also makes comparative research very challenging as the number of
variables makes systems and outcomes very difficult to compare. This is illustrated in the
sections that follow.
Age has long since played an important role in defining the parameters of a state’s
youth justice system, traditionally circumscribing its limits at the lower and upper ends.
At the lower end, the age of criminal responsibility operates as the gateway to the justice
system for children, defining the age at which a child can be prosecuted for a criminal
offence. In many states, the age of criminal responsibility is set at a precise age – as low
as 7 or as high as 16 (see the full list at www.crin.org) – and in others, no age at all is speci-
fied meaning either that children cannot be tried at all, or they can be tried at any age once
certain conditions – mainly relating to the gravity of the offence – are met (Zang, 2017).
1297811YJJ0010.1177/14732254241297811Youth JusticeKilkelly and Pleysier
editorial2024
Editorial
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