In response to policy concerns in England and Wales and internationally, a considerable knowledge base has identified factors statistically associated with reduced recidivism for children leaving custodial institutions. However, despite resulting guidance on how to support resettlement (‘reentry’), practice and outcomes remain disappointing. We argue that this failure reflects weaknesses in the dominant ‘risk paradigm’, which lacks a theory of change and undermines children’s agency. We conceptualise resettlement as a pro-social identity shift. A new practice model reinterprets existing risk-based messages accordingly, and crucially adds principles to guide a child’s desistance journey. However, successful implementation may require the model to inform culture change more broadly across youth justice.
This article offers an analysis of the recent fall in youth custody in England and Wales. It argues that parallels can be drawn between the present period and the decline in child imprisonment during Margaret Thatcher's premiership in the 1980s. In particular, increased diversion and a depoliticization of youth crime have contributed to a more tolerant decision making within the court arena. Some remarks on the implications for an understanding of the punitive turn are offered and an assessment of the prospect for future trends is provided in the light of the riots of August 2011.
The United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of Child monitors the compliance of states who are signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child with the Convention's provisions. In June 2016, the Committee published the results of its fourth examination of the performance of the UK government: the 'concluding observations' not only noted some areas of improvement in the period since the last report in 2008 but also highlighted a variety of concerns including in the treatment of children who are alleged to have broken the law. Among the general reservations raised by the Committee was the fact that antidiscrimination legislation exempts children from the protections of those statutory provisions. Children in particular groups, including 'Roma, Gypsy and Traveller children, children of other ethnic minorities, children with disabilities, children in care, migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee children, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children', continue to experience discrimination and stigmatisation. The Committee noted with regret that 'recent fiscal policies and allocation of resources' have impacted negatively on the enjoyment of children's rights with particularly adverse consequences for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Under Article 3 of the Convention, the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in all actions that concern children, but the Committee found that this principle 'is still not reflected in all legislative and policy matters and judicial decisions affecting children'. Despite Article 12 of the Convention requiring respect for children's views, the Committee determined that children's voices were not systematically heard in policy making and that many
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