Sentencing Children: Overarching Principles Revisited
| Author | Nigel Stone |
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1473225417720552 |
| Subject Matter | Legal Commentary |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1473225417720552
Youth Justice
2017, Vol. 17(2) 171 –180
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1473225417720552
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Legal Commentary
Sentencing Children: Overarching
Principles Revisited
Nigel Stone
Eight years ago the predecessor to the current Sentencing Council for England and Wales
(SC), the Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC),1 published a Definitive Guideline
Overarching Principles – Sentencing Youths (SGC, 2009) seeking for the first time to set
out an authoritative encapsulation of the distinctive elements to be applied by sentencers
in dealing with the under-18s on conviction. In the belief that this guidance had become
‘piecemeal and dated’ and following a Consultation exercise (Sentencing Council (SC),
2016), based on fresh draft guidelines (included as Annex C of the Consultation docu-
ment), the Sentencing Council has published Sentencing Children and Young People:
Definitive Guideline (SC, 2017a),2 effective from 01 June 2017.3 This Commentary seeks
to convey some sense of what this refresh initiative contributes towards a more principled
generic approach towards youth justice in this jurisdiction.
‘Youths’: A Terminological Re-think
Though initially minded simply to retain the language of the 2009 guidance title, the
Council was persuaded by respondents who argued either that reference to ‘youths’ or
‘young offenders’ was counter to welfare-centred principles that require young defend-
ants to be considered as ‘children first and offenders second’ (Howard League, 2016), thus
avoiding a form of labelling that serves to entrench them in a negative identity or was
open to question on the basis that ‘youths’ lacks any clear basis in statutory definition
(Law Society, 2016). Accordingly, the Council opted to refer to ‘children and young
people’.4
‘Youth’ is not without a legislative footprint. The Criminal Justice Act (CJA) 1982 s.6
(now repealed) introduced ‘youth custody’ as a disposal for those aged 15 up to (and
Corresponding author:
Nigel Stone, School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Elizabeth Fry Building, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
Email: n.stone@uea.ac.uk
720552YJJ0010.1177/1473225417720552Youth JusticeStone
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