Barry Goldson

Re-imagining Juvenile Justice explores major concepts, issues, debates and controversies in the field of juvenile justice both nationally and internationally. It seeks to fundamentally reconceptualise or, as the title implies, ‘re-imagine’ juvenile justice. The book historicises contemporary juvenile justice before engaging a dispassionate and objective analysis of juvenile ‘crime’ in the modern age. Social harm and public health perspectives are applied both to contextualise juvenile ‘crime’ and to re-examine the legitimacy and efficacy of many conventional juvenile justice interventions with reference to ‘rehabilitation’, ‘harm reduction’, ‘crime prevention’ and ‘community safety’. It considers the extent to which international human rights standards might provide a unifying framework for juvenile justice law, policy and practice. The book also critically analyses the social, economic, political and cultural contexts that appear to sustain both progressive and repressive juvenile justice (both within and between national borders). Ultimately, the foundational principles of a juvenile justice with integrity - a radical alternative model to conventional (and failing) western juvenile justice systems - is set out. Re-imagining juvenile justice will have international appeal for students, teachers and researchers in criminology, sociology, social policy, social work, youth studies, cultural studies, socio-legal studies, law and political science.

Re-imagining Juvenile Justice explores major concepts, issues, debates and controversies in the field of juvenile justice both nationally and internationally. It seeks to fundamentally reconceptualise or, as the title implies, ‘re-imagine’ juvenile justice. The book historicises contemporary juvenile justice before engaging a dispassionate and objective analysis of juvenile ‘crime’ in the modern age. Social harm and public health perspectives are applied both to contextualise juvenile ‘crime’ and to re-examine the legitimacy and efficacy of many conventional juvenile justice interventions with reference to ‘rehabilitation’, ‘harm reduction’, ‘crime prevention’ and ‘community safety’. It considers the extent to which international human rights standards might provide a unifying framework for juvenile justice law, policy and practice. The book also critically analyses the social, economic, political and cultural contexts that appear to sustain both progressive and repressive juvenile justice (both within and between national borders). Ultimately, the foundational principles of a juvenile justice with integrity - a radical alternative model to conventional (and failing) western juvenile justice systems - is set out. Re-imagining juvenile justice will have international appeal for students, teachers and researchers in criminology, sociology, social policy, social work, youth studies, cultural studies, socio-legal studies, law and political science.

This book represents the first major analysis of Anglo-Australian youth justice and penality to be published and it makes significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the wider field of comparative criminology. By exploring trends in law, policy and practice over a forty-year period, the book critically surveys the ‘moving images’ of youth justice regimes and penal cultures, the principal drivers of reform, the core outcomes of such processes and the overall implications for theory building. It addresses a wide range of questions including: How has the temporal and spatial patterning of youth justice and penality evolved since the early 1980s to the present time? What impacts have legislative and policy reforms imposed upon processes of criminalisation, sentencing practices and the use of penal detention for children and young people? How do we comprehend both the diverse ways in which public representations of ‘young offenders’ are shaped, structured and disseminated and the varied, conflicting and contradictory effects of such representations? To what extent do international human rights standards influence law, policy and practice in the realms of youth justice and penality? To what extent are youth justice systems implicated in the production and reproduction of social injustices? How, and to what degree, are youth justice systems and penal cultures internationalised, nationalised, regionalised or localised? The book is essential reading for researchers, students and tutors in criminology, criminal justice, law, social policy, sociology and youth studies.

This book represents the first major analysis of Anglo-Australian youth justice and penality to be published and it makes significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the wider field of comparative criminology. By exploring trends in law, policy and practice over a forty-year period, the book critically surveys the ‘moving images’ of youth justice regimes and penal cultures, the principal drivers of reform, the core outcomes of such processes and the overall implications for theory building. It addresses a wide range of questions including: How has the temporal and spatial patterning of youth justice and penality evolved since the early 1980s to the present time? What impacts have legislative and policy reforms imposed upon processes of criminalisation, sentencing practices and the use of penal detention for children and young people? How do we comprehend both the diverse ways in which public representations of ‘young offenders’ are shaped, structured and disseminated and the varied, conflicting and contradictory effects of such representations? To what extent do international human rights standards influence law, policy and practice in the realms of youth justice and penality? To what extent are youth justice systems implicated in the production and reproduction of social injustices? How, and to what degree, are youth justice systems and penal cultures internationalised, nationalised, regionalised or localised? The book is essential reading for researchers, students and tutors in criminology, criminal justice, law, social policy, sociology and youth studies.