This article draws on an ongoing comparative study of youth justice in Italy and (England and) Wales to pose two questions. First, to what extent does the construction and use of social reports in the youth justice systems in the two jurisdictions conform to projected ‘new’ transnational trends in neo-liberal penal discourses? Second, in so far as differences in the influence of these discourses can be identified, how are they to be explained and interpreted? Particular attention is focused on differences in the institutional and cultural relations between those who write and those who use and interpret such reports. But these relations are examined in the light of broader differences in political cultures which, by defining the ‘problem’ of youth and crime in different ways, frame differently the decision-making surrounding social reports in the two jurisdictions. The study is based on empirical data (semi-structured interviews, case-file analysis) primarily drawn from Emilia Romagna in Italy and from South Wales.

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This paper charts some major differences in the way in which evidence of the defendant's character is treated in France when compared with practice in England and Wales. Such evidence is more pervasive and visible (especially in the most serious cases) and its relevance is more broadly defined. Further, its presentation is shaped by a developed and positive conception of the French citizen. In part, these differences may be explained by differences in procedural tradition: the unitary trial structure in France, the dominance of fact-finding by the professional judiciary, and the rejection of general exclusionary rules of evidence. But a full explanation requires French legal culture to be understood in the context of French political culture. This reveals a very different conception of relations between state and citizen to that of AngloSaxon liberalism. As a result the legitimacy of trial is seen in terms of the rehabilitation of the accused as a citizen of the state rather than simply the punishment of a particular infraction.

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