Young and Dangerous Gwyneth Boswell Avebury, 1996; £32.50 hbk
| Date | 01 December 1996 |
| Published date | 01 December 1996 |
| Author | Barry Goldson |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059604300416 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
225
out
in
the
university
town
of
Aberystwyth,
on
the
far
west
coast
of
Wales,
during
1993.
The
survey
is
an
excellent
example
of
its
type
and,
in
particular,
provides
a
concentration
upon
those
specifically
rural
dimensions
which
are
most
often
missing
within
an
urban-
dominated
literature.
The
Aberystwyth
data
is
set
in
context
by
a
series
of
chapters
which
deal
with
the
vagaries
of
criminal
statistics,
the
legitimate
uses
of
crime
surveys
and
the
increasing
importance
attached
to
victims
within
the
criminal
justice
system.
All
chapters
have
relevant
and
useful material
for
probation
officers.
The
criminal
statistics
chapter,
for
example,
provides
an
admirably
clear
and
digestible
account
of
this
sometimes
confusing
area.
The
victims
chapter
is
firmly
rooted
in
an
understanding
that,
in
the
current
climate,
a
proper
concern
for
victims
is
constantly
at
risk
of
being
hijacked
by
a
’politically
orientated
and
reactionary’
agenda.
It is
in
the
detail
of
the
local
survey
itself,
however,
that
the
real
interest
lies.
Younger
people,
the
scapegoats
for
so
much
contemporary
policy,
emerge
as
the
group
least
likely
to
report
offences
committed
against
them.
Only
8%
of
all
victims
in
the
survey
were
of
the
opinion
that
’their’
offender
ought
to
go
to
prison.
These,
and
a
wealth
of
other
findings,
make
this
modestly-priced
book
a
rewarding
as
well
as
informative
investment
for
any
probation
library.
Mark
Drakeford
University
of
Wales,
Cardiff
Young
and
Dangerous
Gwyneth
Boswell
Avebury,
1996;
£32.50
hbk
The
tensions
and
dynamics
between
welfare
and
justice,
care
and
punishment,
and
child
protection
and
public
protection
inevitably
underpin
any
analysis
of
’youth
justice’
policy
and
practice.
Nowhere
are
such
relations
more
complex
(and
in
many
senses
contested)
than
in
the
cases
of
children
who
are
sentenced
under
the
provisions
of
Section
53
of
the
1933
Children
and
Young
Persons
Act.
This
book
consolidates
and
develops
Boswell’s
work
from
her
two
reports
for
the
Prince’s
Trust:
Waiting
for
Change
(1991)
and
Violent
Victims
(1995).
It
examines
the
systems
and
institutions
for
the
management
and
processing
of
’Section
53
offenders’
and
it
unearths
the
ruptured
and
abusive
backgrounds
experienced
by
many
of
the
children
so
labelled.
In
a
balanced
and
measured
style
Boswell
sets
out
a
critique
of
an
adult
criminal
justice
system
which
is
crudely
superimposed
within
the
domain
of
childcare/youth
justice,
and
which
awkwardly
processes
children
through
secure
units,
Youth
Treatment
Centres,
young
offender
institutions
and
adult
prisons
as
they
serve
often
lengthy
sentences
of
incarceration.
The
opening
chapter
places
the
legal
and
institutional
provisions
for
children
who
have
been
sentenced
under
Section
53
in
their
historical
and
contemporary
contexts.
By
the
end
of
Chapter
Two
the
reader
is
well
acquainted
with
the
systems
and
the
institutional
arrangements
which
serve
to
manage
and
process
the
children.
Boswell
introduces
and
analyses
statistical
data
and
goes
on
to
review
sentencing
processes,
mobility
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