YOUTH JUSTICE IN THE UK

Youth Justice in the UK

Youth Justice in the UK

Young offenders in England and Wales are young people between 10 and 18 years - a special legal category. Children under 10 may be held legally liable or prosecuted for crimes. They can be subject to measures of educational assistance and protection when the interest of the child is shown. A child may instead be placed in closed detention by decision of the administrative Local administration of youth protection.

The history of the justice system in England and Wales has been at the centre of many ideological struggles. This article examines the origins and evolution of policies conducted in response to traditional judicial policies on minors, in England and Wales. It is divided in two parts. It traces the outline of the development of two major texts of recent reforms in youth justice: Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. (Blair 1996, 100-106)

Youth justice has long been a subject of persistent concern in England and Wales. The history of justice has been marked by a pressure between a model "assistance / protection" and an approach “control/punishment." If we compared to European neighbours - and other parts of the United Kingdom, including Scotland - the youth justice system has traditionally adopted a more punitive and less protection trice. The modern system of youth justice is born of social reform movements of the late nineteenth century, and, based on the principle that young people should be treated justly; a youth court was established in 1908. The same year, a new form of detention was created to support 16-21 years: the reformatory (Borstal). (Coles 2002, 288-302)

The law on "Children and Youth" (The Children and Young Persons) Act 1933, reaffirmed the principle of a youth justice system separate from the adults by assuming that this new policy could help protect the youngsters. Although this orientation "youth protection" may have some knowledge of inflections, it continued to dominate the system of youth justice in the next 40 years. The climax of the system was reached in the late 1960s with the passage of the law on "Children and Youth" act in 1969 (The Children and Young Persons Act). The law proposed to remove reformatories and detention centres and to remove any criminal prosecution for youth offenders under 14 years. It promoted the protection measures in relation to criminal procedures.

However, the law was not never fully implemented followed a change of government and the breakdown political consensus that had previously existed, especially in criminal cases. The age limit required for criminal prosecution remained at 10 years and the youth court continued to be a junior criminal court, and the 1969 Act became the scapegoat for all ills attributed to delinquent youth and justice in the year 1970. The more repressive policy was reflected by an increase significant number of incarcerations: went from 3000 convictions in 1970 to 7000 in 1978. (Simmons 2002, 11-15)

It accelerated in 1979 with the election ...