NCJ Number
145261
Journal
Key to Commonwealth Corrections Issue: 25 Dated: (Autumn 1993) Pages: 9-14
Date Published
1993
Length
6 pages
Annotation
From 1981 to 1990, the number of juvenile offenders brought before the courts in England and Wales fell by 66 percent, while the number sent to prison department custody declined by more than 75 percent; one result of this apparently more lenient approach to juvenile offenders and historical developments leading up to it was a significant reduction in juvenile crime.
Abstract
Since the early 1900's, juvenile policies and initiatives in England and Wales have been based on different ideas about why young people commit crime and how to deter them. Most approaches to juvenile crime have stressed the need to retain an element of punishment but have also sought to incorporate rehabilitation through discipline, hard work, physical activity, training, and education. In the 1960's, the primacy of institutionalized responses to juvenile offenders began to be challenged, due in part to the ineffectiveness of various institutions and programs at the time. The Children and Young Persons Act of 1969 introduced intermediate treatment, an alternative to residential care and prison custody in which juveniles would be supervised in the community by a social worker or a probation officer. The emphasis on intermediate treatment also came to be known as the diversionary or systems approach because it stressed the need to divert young people away from criminal justice interventions that exceeded the minimum necessary response. In 1982, the new Criminal Justice Act introduced strict criteria for imposing a prison custody sentence. In 1985 and again in 1990, police officers were encouraged to caution juvenile offenders unless it was clearly necessary to prosecute. During the 1980's, juvenile court prosecutions were reduced by two-thirds, care orders were abolished, and custodial sentences were significantly reduced. It is concluded that the most effective response to juvenile offenders is to impose the minimum punitive sentence necessary to keep them out of trouble and in the community.