Youth Justice and Penality in Comparative Context

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.

1.The Conceptual and Empirical Co-ordinates of Comparative Youth Justice and Penality 2.Recent Histories and Contemporary Trends in Comparative Youth Justice and Penality 3.Populist Discourses and Public Representations of ‘Young Offenders’ 4.Enduring Violations: Youth Justice, Penality and Human Rights 5.The Racialisation of Youth Justice and Penality 6.The Disabling Effects of Youth Justice and Penality 7.Re-thinking Comparative Youth Justice and Penality: From Global/Supranational Trends to Sub-National/Local Practices 8.Conclusions, Reflections and Prospects

Barry Goldson holds the Charles Booth Chair of Social Science at the University of Liverpool, Chris Cunneen is Professor of Criminology at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney, Sophie Russell is Research Associate at UNSW, David Brown is Emeritus Professor of Criminology at UNSW, Eileen Baldry is Professor of Criminology at UNSW, Melanie Schwartz is Senior Lecturer in Law at UNSW and Damon Briggs is Principal Curriculum Lead for ‘Frontline’, a social work education agency in the UK.