The Crime and Disorder Act 1998: Child and Community ‘Safety’

Date01 May 1999
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.00213
Published date01 May 1999
LEGISLATION
Community ‘Safety’
Christine Piper*
The provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (‘the Act’) relating to children
and young people came as no surprise to those with academic and professional
interests in youth justice and crime prevention, such provisions being based on
measures previously outlined in the White Paper, No More Excuses – A New
Approach to Tackling Youth Crime in England and Wales,1and in the Audit
Commission’s Report, Misspent Youth, Young People and Crime.2However, the
scope and significance of those provisions may have escaped more general notice,
partly because the title does not suggest a focus on children and young people and
also because debate, in Parliament and the media, in the weeks immediately before
the Act received the Royal Assent on 31 July 1998, was dominated by controversy
around an amendment, which was not enacted, to lower the age of consent for
homosexual sex from 18 to 16 years.3
The Act as a whole provides new court orders relating to the prevention and
punishment of crime and disorder, amends the criminal law and revises aspects of
the youth and adult criminal justice systems. However, the Act’s title does not give
any indication that so many of the Act’s provisions are aimed at minors. Family
lawyers, for example, may only now be noting that the Act has provisions which,
when implemented,4will make new orders available to the Family Proceedings
Court. Indeed, one might argue that if the Act had been entitled the ‘Children and
Young Persons’ Act’ that would not have been so very misleading, given the focus
of such a large proportion of the Act5on those under 18 years of age.6The many
provisions of the Act relating to children and young people have the potential, as
had the Children Act 1989, for changing professional philosophies for working
with children and families and for influencing how we ‘see’ children.
ßThe Modern Law Review Limited 1999 (MLR 62:3, May). Published by Blackwell Publishers,
108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 397
* Law Department, Brunel University.
1 Cm 3809 (London: Stationery Office, 1997). This White Paper was itself based on consultation
documents issued by the Government when in Opposition and during its first six months in power. See,
for example, Safer communities, safer Britain, Labour’s proposals for tough action on crime (London:
Labour Party, 1995); J. Straw and A. Michael Tackling Youth Crime: Reforming Youth Justice, A
consultation paper on an agenda for change (London: Labour Party, May 1996) and Community Safety
Order, A Consultation Document (London: Sentencing and Offences Unit, Home Office, September
1997).
2 London: Audit Commission, 1996.
3 This proposed reform was part of a new clause 1 which had been passed in the House of Commons by a
majority of 207 on 22 June 1998 but was rejected in the House of Lords on 22 July by a majority of
168 and dropped by the Government in order to ensure the passage of the Act: see R. Swade ‘The
Crime and Disorder Bill, The Age of Consent Debate’ (1998) 148 Childright 6.
4 Pilots for child safety orders began in selected areas on 30 September 1998 and will run for 18 months
with the aim of national implementation in 2000–2001.
5 As V. Baird points out, ‘there are youth-related measures in all five parts of the Act’ (‘Crime and
Disorder Act 1998: introduction and new preventative orders in youth justice’ (1998) Legal Action
October 15, 15).
6 The Act uses the previous statutory definitions of ‘child’ as under 14 and ‘young person’ as 14 and
under 18 (s 117).

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