Youth crime and justice: Key messages from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime

Abstract

Based on findings from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, this article challenges the evidence-base which policy-makers have drawn on to justify the evolving models of youth justice across the UK (both in Scotland and England/Wales). It argues that to deliver justice, systems need to address four key facts about youth crime: serious offending is linked to a broad range of vulnerabilities and social adversity; early identification of at-risk children is not an exact science and runs the risk of labelling and stigmatizing; pathways out of offending are facilitated or impeded by critical moments in the early teenage years, in particular school exclusion; and diversionary strategies facilitate the desistance process. The article concludes that the Scottish system should be better placed than most other western systems to deliver justice for children (due to its founding commitment to decriminalization and destigmatization). However, as currently implemented, it appears to be failing many young people.

‘It’s good but it’s not enough’: the relational geographies of social policy and youth mentoring interventions

“…Within youth justice policy, young people have been the targets of various 'early intervention' models with reviews repeatedly emphasising the efficacy of targeted preventative and 'pro-social' programs over those which seek to 'rehabilitate', particularly in the early teenage years (Greenwood 2008, McAra andMcVie 2010). In the devolved administration of Scotland within the UK, 'early intervention' has been central to policies across the fields of education, social work and criminal justice under the policy known as 'GIRFEC' -'Getting it right for every child' (Scottish Government 2008a, 2008b.…”

A Discrete-Time Survival Analysis of the Relationship Between Truancy and the Onset of Marijuana Use

“…Truant youth are more likely to perform poorly in school and drop out of school (Wehlage and Rutter, 1986), use illegal drugs (Henry and Huizinga, 2007;Miller and Plant, 1999), commit crimes (Baker, 2000;Bell et al, 1994;Garry, 1996;Huizinga et al, 1995;McAra, 2004), and become pregnant as a teenager . Truancy is also associated with poor adult outcomes, including violence, marital instability, job instability, lower-status jobs, adult criminality, and incarceration .…”

Policing youth anti‐social behaviour and crime: time for reform?

“…In short, therefore, whilst there was some evidence of officers engaging in diversionary activities, it was also clear that one of the consequences of general police practices in relation to many other young people -however unintentionally -was to ratchet up the likelihood of the formal criminal justice intervention. By contrast, however, we might return to the recent experience of the impact of extant government targets such as OBTJ where it can be argued that, by restricting police discretion, encouragement was given to conduct which targeted, labelled and 're-cycled' (McAra and McVie, 2010) particular groups of young people, resulting in an over-use of a wide range of low level interventions with, almost certainly, predictable consequences for these youngsters' future involvement with the youth justice system. The challenge for policy-makers consequently remains one of designing systems for constructive early intervention and prevention activity whilst avoiding the dangers of stigmatization and over-criminalization.…”