Equality in the Youth Court: Meaning, Perceptions and Implications of the Principle of Equality in Youth Justice
| Author | Yannick van den Brink |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14732254211013420 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14732254211013420
Youth Justice
2022, Vol. 22(3) 245 –271
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14732254211013420
journals.sagepub.com/home/yjj
Equality in the Youth Court:
Meaning, Perceptions and
Implications of the Principle of
Equality in Youth Justice
Yannick van den Brink
Abstract
Equality is a fundamental principle, also in youth justice. Nevertheless, children from ethnic minorities,
children with disabilities and children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are vastly overrepresented in
youth detention populations across the globe. This article combines interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives
and empirical findings from interviews with practitioners from two English youth courts to explore the
meaning, perceptions and implications of the principle of equality in the specific context of the youth court.
Ultimately, this article presents the first contours of a conceptual model of equality in the youth court,
which aims to inform policy, practice and future research.
Keywords
access, belonging, equality, fairness, juvenile justice, youth court, youth justice
Introduction
It is estimated that on any given day, between 160,000 and 250,000 children1 are deprived
of their liberty in youth prisons and detention centres worldwide because they are accused
or convicted of committing a criminal offence (Nowak, 2019). The populations of these
youth prisons and detention centres typically consist of the poorest and most disadvan-
taged children in society (Goldson and Kilkelly, 2013; Webster, 2018). Overrepresentation
of children from racial and ethnic minorities, children with disabilities and children from
low socioeconomic backgrounds in detention is a reality in many youth justice systems
across the globe (Bishop, 2005; Boon et al., 2018; Goldson and Kilkelly, 2013; Webster,
2018;Youth Justice Board, 2021).
Evidence suggests that the overrepresentation of these children in detention is partly
due to disparities in youth court decision-making regarding pre-trial detention and sen-
tencing (Armstrong and Rodriguez, 2005; Bishop, 2005; DeLone and DeLone, 2017;
Corresponding author:
Yannick van den Brink, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9520, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands.
Email: y.n.vanden.brink@vu.nl
1013420YJJ0010.1177/14732254211013420Youth Justicevan den Brink
research-article2021
Original Article
246 Youth Justice 22(3)
Guevara et al., 2006; Maroun, 2019; Rodriguez, 2010; Uhrig, 2016; Van den Brink et al.,
2017). These findings are reason for concern: not only because detention has detrimental
consequences for children’s well-being and future life chances (Goldson, 2009; Freeman
and Seymour, 2010; Liefaard et al., 2014; Van den Brink and Lubow, 2019), but also
because such disparities seem incompatible with the principle of equality.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (‘UN CRC’; Art. 2),
the principle of equality demands equal rights protection for all children, without dis-
crimination of any kind. This fundamental principle is, in fact, an essential pillar of every
youth justice system that adheres to the rule of law (cf. UN Committee on the Rights of
the Child, 2003, 2019). Nevertheless, the normative question of what the principle of
equality means and implies in the specific context of the youth court and how this princi-
ple is perceived by youth court practitioners on the ground is still surprisingly underex-
plored. This article aims to fill this gap by scrutinizing the meaning, perceptions and
implications of equality in the youth court.
Using an interdisciplinary approach, this article starts with a general exploration of the
underlying rationale and significance of the principle of equality as an overarching nor-
mative ideal, followed by an analysis of how the principle of equality relates to and inter-
acts with other core principles in the specific context of the youth court. Subsequently,
this article explores the perceptions of the principle of equality among youth court practi-
tioners in two English youth courts. Informed by the theoretical analyses and the perspec-
tives of the youth court professionals on the ground, this article ultimately aims to draw
the first contours of a conceptual model of equality in the youth court and to explore its
potential implications for policy, practice and future research.
Equality: An Overarching Normative Ideal
Equality is a fundamental human rights principle which is codified in many national con-
stitutions and entrenched in several international and regional human rights treaties (cf.
Arnardóttir, 2003; Besson, 2005; Farrior, 2015), including the almost universally ratified
UN CRC. Article 2 (1) of the UN CRC obliges States to respect and ensure the rights set
out in the Convention to each child within their jurisdiction, without discrimination of any
kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property,
disability, birth or other status. This principle of non-discrimination is formally acknowl-
edged by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (2003: para. 12) as one of the four
‘general principles’ of the UN CRC and aims to ensure children’s ‘equal access to [all]
rights’ laid down in the Convention. In this regard, Arnardóttir (2003: 6–8) and Besson
(2005: 434–435) note that under international human rights law, equality and non-dis-
crimination are essentially two sides of the same coin: equality refers to the positive
dimension of equality (i.e. promoting equal enjoyment of rights), while non-discrimina-
tion refers to the negative absence of discrimination, which forbids ‘treating differently
similar situations without an objective justification’ to prevent unlawful impairments of
rights-holders’ equal enjoyment of rights. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
(2003) emphasizes that the application of the principle of non-discrimination (and/or
To continue reading
Request your trial