Book Review: Moore T, Youth Court Guide, 3rd Edition, Tottel Publishing, Haywards Heath, 2009, £58.00 Pb, ISBN 978—1—84766—141—8
| Published date | 01 April 2010 |
| Date | 01 April 2010 |
| Author | Sarah Bower |
| DOI | 10.1177/14732254100100010702 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Book Reviews 97
who are ‘at risk’ as opposed to presenting a risk. As he rightly observes, an excessive focus
on ‘crime’ at the expense of welfare needs and broader contextual issues, is likely to be prob-
lematic, with the resultant danger of ‘reinforcing rather than’ reducing the impacts of exclu-
sion and discrimination for ethnic minorities being a particular matter of concern. By contrast,
one of the earlier chapters merely notes an apparent disparity between the ‘over-representa-
tion’ of ethnic minority groups in official crime figures and the absence of any differences
between them and ‘Dutch indigenous’ children in self-report studies. This, alone, is a com-
pelling reason for questioning the default strategy here of seeking to account for the ‘crimes’
of the young as if they are simply a given, whose causes must be forensically isolated.
The problems with this sort of project are two-fold. The first is that they give the
impression that scientific precision can be attained in the task of identifying causes and
consequences, and developing effective interventions to deal with them, that is over-
claiming, based on evidence which usually turns out to be either equivocal or unsound.
And, the second is that this is presented as the only legitimate way of thinking about
young people and crime – it offers us no explanatory purchase on equally, or possibly
more significant questions, such as where in their early lives were the ‘risk factors’ which
can be associated with the major frauds carried out recently by international bankers?
Perhaps the empiricists would gain more credibility if they pursued answers to this kind
of question, rather than continually turning the spotlight on children of poor and otherwise
disadvantaged backgrounds, often of minority ethnic origin. What sort of book might it
have been if the title had instead been ‘Tomorrow’s “Criminals”?’.
References
Beck U (1992) Risk Society. London: SAGE.
Muncie J (2009) Youth & Crime, 3rd Edition. London: SAGE.
Pitts J (2008) Reluctant Gangsters. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Moore T, Youth Court Guide, 3rd Edition,
Tottel Publishing, Haywards Heath, 2009, £58.00 Pb, ISBN 978–1–84766–141–8.
Reviewed by: Sarah Bower, Youth Offending Service Court Officer, NW England, UK.
This book is designed to provide a comprehensive guide to the process of children and
young people being dealt with by the criminal justice system. It is written by a solicitor
and former Justices’ Clerk, with 30 years experience of the Youth Court in addition to
training other lawyers. The guide is largely a procedural manual, and therefore is written
from a legal perspective giving the reader step-by-step instructions in the processes to be
followed. Its intended audience is all those professionals working in the Youth Courts –
magistrates, solicitors, legal advisors and Youth Offending Team staff.
The breadth of the subject matter goes even beyond the title, and ...begins with the
processing of juveniles arrested by the police. The author intends the book to naturally
follow the process of a legal case, from initial detention through to the appeals process
after conviction/sentence. Its scope is therefore large, and the structure is logical and
guides the reader through the steps of the system. In addition to the specific procedural
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