Youth, crime + justice: Scotland Flashcards
Describe the principles of youth justice
Treated differently than adults
Separate institutions and with separate principles
Protect children and look after children’s welfare.
Describe youth crime rates
Reduction in proven offences by 10-17 year olds in England and Wales 2009/10 to 2012/13
Describe associations with youth offending
Abuse Chaotic families Social exclusion Poverty Drug/ alcohol abuse Truancy and school exclusion
Describe growing out of crime
Approx 75% serious youth offending does not come to attention of youth justice agencies
Most young people stop offending anyway
Describe contact with the youth justice system
Contact with the YJS increases risk and severity of future conviction.
Describe the children’s hearing system
Abolished youth courts in Scotland (apart from very serious cases) replaced with hearing system
Children’s hearings: informal, welfare tribunals run by a ‘lay panel’ - three members of the community (mix of men and women), The child and their parents/carers; the children’s reporter, a social worker, other professionals (such as teachers, psychologists)
Priority to welfare of child and work in the child’s ‘best interests’
Outcomes:
supervision requirements,
Including putting child in local authority residential care
ASBOs, electronic tagging.
Describe the Scottish approach to children’s hearing systems
“Scotland has led the world in developing a system which puts the child at its centre”
(Scottish Executive, 2004)
Welfare oriented, non-criminalising
Maximum diversion, minimum intervention
Humane, age-appropriate, just, supported by research evidence
Cons of Scottish children’s hearing system
Intrusive interventions
May put a lot of children in social care
16 and 17 year olds in the adult criminal justice system and imprison this age group at a higher rate than elsewhere in Europe,
To reduce reoffending, we must:
Reduce contact with the YJS Reduce the use of custody We need a strategy of MAXIMUM DIVERSION MINUMUM INTERVENTION
