Reforming the response to youth crime: from evidence to implementation
| Published date | 17 June 2011 |
| Pages | 67-76 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466661111149367 |
| Date | 17 June 2011 |
| Author | David J. Smith,David Utting |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
Reforming the response to youth crime:
from evidence to implementation
David J. Smith and David Utting
Abstract
Purpose – This paper seeks to argue that there are many failings in current responses to youth crime
and antisocial behaviour in England and Wales, which means that the time is ripe for reform.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper summarises the analysis and recommendations of the
Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour, which in July 2010 published its
report, Time for a Fresh Start, and a book, A New Response to Youth Crime, setting out the evidence on
which the report was based. These are considered against a backdrop of failings of the current system
and in the context of current cuts in public services.
Findings – The present system in England and Wales fails to resolve the tension between punishment
and welfare in a coherent way. It is ineffective in preventing crime and reoffending, it targets the
disadvantaged and it is incomprehensible to most young offenders. The Commission proposes that in
future restorative justice should be the core of the youth justice system.
Originality/value – The paper argues that a reformed system would exert a stronger influence on young
offenders, would be more satisfying to victims and would inspire greater confidence in the general
public.
Keywords Youth, Social behaviour, Justice, Crimes, Punishment
Paper type General review
Introduction
The failures of our current responses to youth crime and antisocial behaviour are deep-rooted
and far-reaching.A single, comprehensive reform of youth justice (comparable to the Scottish
reforms of the late 1960s) will not emergefrom the current political configuration but the recent
Green Paper Breaking the Cycle (MJ, 2010) provides openings for change that may
eventually amount to wholesale reform. In July 2010, the Independent Commission on Youth
Crime and Antisocial Behaviour published its own report, Time for a Fresh Start, backed by an
edited volume, A New Response to Youth Crime (Smith, 2010a, b), in which leading scholars
distil and analyse the evidence that ought to inform discussion of youth justice and crime
prevention. Here, we explain how the Commission’s recommendations emerge from that
evidence and discuss priorities and tactics in kick-starting the process of change.
Failures of the current system
Problems with youth justice arise from inescapable tensions between different objectives.
Youth justice systems are required both to help troubled young people to change and
develop and to deliver a firm response to offending as a means of protecting the public.
Reconciling these objectives is particularly problematic in the case of those who persistently
and seriously offend (McAra, 2010). As a result of this tension, the history of the English
system has been an oscillating contest between punishment and welfare and between
deterrence and rehabilitation. This ambiguity may be useful for politicians (by facing two
ways at once they can hope to satisfy more of their market) but it results in a level of
ineffectiveness that cannot be sustained for much longer. The principal actors within the
DOI 10.1108/17466661111149367 VOL. 6 NO. 2 2011, pp. 67-76, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES
j
PAGE 67
David J. Smith, University of
Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
David Utting, Independent
Commission on Youth
Crime and Antisocial
Behaviour, London, UK.
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