Youth justice: reflections on where we
are and where we are going
Tim Bateman
NAYJ 2 April 2012
New administrations – new proposals for
criminal justice
• New Labour –
‘This White Paper seeks to draw a line under the past and sets out a
new approach to tackling youth crime.’
No More Excuses, 1997
• The coalition Government ‘Our plans represent a fundamental break with the failed and
expensive policies of the past.’
Breaking the Cycle, 2010
• For New Labour, the ‘youth justice system …too often excuses the
young offenders before it, implying that they cannot help their
behaviour because of their social circumstances. Rarely are they
confronted with their behaviour …’
• The Coalition complains that ‘If we do not prevent and tackle
offending by young people then the young offenders of today will
become the prolific career criminals of tomorrow.’
A rapidly expanding universe
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
Rate of prosecution 1992 – 2008 (percent)
50
45
40
35
30
25
A contracting universe: first time entrants to the
youth justice system
120,000
110,000
100,000
90,000
80,000
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
2000/01
2001/02
2002/03
2003/04
2004/05
2005/06
2006/07
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
Youth justice disposals: 2006/7 against 2010/11
140000
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
Reprimand/
warning
Discharge
2008/09
Fine
Community order
2010/11
Custody
The Coalition government and custody
• Remand provisions of the Legal Aid,
Sentencing, and Punishment of
Offenders Bill
• Reducing custody – one of three high
level targets for the youth justice
system
• But: breach to be available for DTOs
even if the order has expired
Some other stings in the tail
• Maximum curfew increased from 12 – 16
hours per day and from 6 – 12 months in
duration
• Mandatory custodial sentences for 16 – 17
year olds for certain form of knife crime
• Consultation on requiring ‘a clear punitive
element in every sentence’
• Any raising of the age of criminal
responsibility ruled out
The elephant in the room: the financial context
• ‘Our ambition to reform must be married with the
reality of the fiscal position and the inevitable
constraints on the public finances …Achieving savings
will mean driving value for money and delivering
more from less’ (Nick Herbert, 2010)
• The contracting universe - YOT budgets:
- 2009/10 = £281m; 2010/11 = £273m
• Ministry of Justice to find another £2b savings by
2014/15
• Resolving the paradox: punitive rhetoric v a less
interventionist, slimmed down, youth justice system
The resurgence of professional discretion
• ‘We
will signal a clean break with the
controlling, centralising tendencies of the past
by making a clear commitment to
decentralisation. We will provide frontline
professionals with greater freedoms in how
they manage offenders…
• ‘...There will be fewer targets for providers
and less prescription in the way that different
agencies work together.’
(Ministry of Justice, 2010)
The Government’s ‘rehabilitation revolution’:
payment by results
• ‘We will create a rehabilitation revolution that
will change those communities whose lives
are made a misery by crime …
• [A] new approach where providers are
increasingly paid by their results at reducing
reoffending… incentivising local partners to
reduce youth offending and re-offending ...’
(MoJ, 2010)
• From the YJB as boss to the market as arbiter
of effective practice
Using renewed discretion
• Work with young people as offenders who pose a risk or as
children with welfare needs?
• Effective practice means regarding young people not as:
‘objects of ‘treatment’ or ‘intervention’, characterised by
needs and deficits and presenting risks, but as active
participants in their own rehabilitation, with strengths, skills
and potential as contributors to their communities’ (Raynor,
2004)
• Giving up offending is correlated with ‘hope’; young people
need to have aspirations and a confidence that they can
achieve their goals (Burnett and Maruna, 2004)
• The conditions of effective practice include: ‘empathy and
genuineness; the establishment of a working alliance; and
the adoption of person-centred, collaborative and ‘clientdriven’ approaches’ (McNeill, 2006)
Using renewed discretion [2]
• Improved engagement – higher
completion rates
• Motivation to comply – the ‘F’ word
• Completion is a two way street –
reducing the incidence of breach
Rate of breach against highest and lowest custody
YOTs: 2009-10
25
18
16
20
14
15
10
8
10
6
4
5
2
0
0
Rate of custody
Breach rate
Linear (Breach rate)
Breach rate
Rate of custody
12
An optimistic conclusion?
• Enhanced discretion – child focused and
child friendly
• Reductions in first time entrants,
reoffending and custody
• Benefit from target related incentives
under payment by results