Search results

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the treatment of children in penal custody.

This paper is a viewpoint piece that analyses the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for children in custody, drawing on published information where available.

This paper argues that imprisoned children are an extremely vulnerable group, whose experience of incarceration exacerbates that vulnerability at the best of times. Responses to COVID-19 are particularly painful for children in those settings, and the consequences are manifestly unjust.

This paper provides an early attempt to consider the impact of COVID-19 on children in prison.

Figures published by the Ministry of Justice show significant progress against New Labour's targets to reduce reoffending by young people within the youth justice system. The outgoing government was, unsurprisingly, quick to infer that such findings constituted corroboration of the improved effectiveness of youth justice practice under their administration. This article considers whether such an inference is warranted and discusses other potential explanations of the data.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the tension between government protestations that youth justice policy is evidence-led and what the evidence implies in the context of the age of criminal responsibility.

The paper takes the form of a conceptual analysis of government policy and the evidence base.

The paper concludes that the current low age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales can be understood as a manifestation of the influence of underclass theory on successive governments.

The paper is not based on primary research.

The arguments adduced help to explain the reluctance of government to countenance any increase in the age of criminal responsibility.

The analysis might help inform approaches adopted by youth justice policy makers, practitioners and academics with an interest in seeking a rise in the age of criminal responsibility.

The paper offers an original analysis of government intransigence on an important social issue.

This article considers the use of Asbos as a response to problematic behaviour exhibited by children and young people under the age of 18 years. Drawing on research conducted on behalf of the Youth Justice Board, it suggests that the perceptions of key professionals involved in the Asbo process may have a greater impact on their use than the level of anti‐social behaviour in an area.