Youth Justice

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Youth Justice Helen Ogilvie h.ogilvie_at_mmu.ac.uk
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Aims Brief Recap on last week Models of Youth
Justice slides and brief discussion Criminologic
al Theories Relating to Youth Justice group
activity and short presentations
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• Recap
• Looked at what we mean by crime and deviance
• Age of criminal Responsibility
• What did you find out about the backgrounds of
  the children
• You tube clip
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vC5StCxzD-jQ

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Models
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The Punishment Model First part of 19th Century
Children treated no differently from adults
(depending on social class) Tried and sentenced
in adult courts (no alternative method) Same
penalties (imprisonment, death penalty,
whipping, transportation and fines) cont/.
...
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Roots in Classical Criminology i.e. that we have
free will we choose to offend or not to offend.
Make a rational choice by weighing up benefits
of breaking law against the punishment Religion
- Crime synonymous with sin Social Contract
we have a duty to abide by the code of the
society we are in
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The Treatment Model Coincides with the
development of psychiatry Cesare
Lombroso(1835-1909) - offending is biologically
determined (in your genes) People likely to
commit crime because of pyschological
defects Young people who commit crimes dont
choose to they are ill and need to be
cured. Idea about biologically determined
largely rejected but connection between mental
ill health, behavioural difficulties such as
ADD/ADHD etc
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The Welfare Model Latter part of 19
Century Move away from punishment and dealing
with the offender Coincides with the development
of Positivist school of criminology which
sees................. cont/....
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........ human behaviour as largely determined by
forces in the social world. Sympton of social
pathology (a diseased society) Idea that young
people do not necessarily have a choice because
of bad parenting, lack of education, low income
family etc. Cont/....
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View that children had different needs from
adults and therefore need a separate criminal
justice system Need to segregate children from
adults in prison Development of reformatories
providing education and training after
prison Not until 1908 Children Act development
of separate Criminal Justice System 1907
Probation of offenders Act provided first
non-custodial alternative (supervision in the
community)
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• Key features
• Crime is viewed as product of offenders
  environment
• Offender viewed as neglected, poor, deprived
• Identifying welfare needs
• Prevent crime by alleviating causes (deprivation,
  poverty etc)
• In the modern system focus on community or
  non-custodial penalties
• Intervention by welfare agencies (social
  services, youth offending team)
• Welfare approaches may by-pass the criminal
  justice process

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Current Criminal Justice System still reflects
all three but swings most dramatically between
the Welfare model and the Punishment Model
Punishment
Welfare
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Discuss the three models in pairs Is there a
model you favour? List ways in which you
think the present criminal justice system
reflects these models 5- 10 mins
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Theory Group work
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• Criminological theory focuses on one or a
  combination of the following reasons for young
  peoples offending behaviour
• Age
• Rational Choice (ie a choice to commit particular
  crime because of what they gain in either
  pleasure or monetary terms)
• Inability to achieve aspirations
• Lack of self control
• Influence of others
• Lack of socialisation.
• Some argue youth offending is ubiquitous
  (happening everywhere) and is normal but
  labelled deviant to ensure social control

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Group exercise 4 theories -8 Groups with
approximately 6 in each 40 minutes reading the
theory and putting together key points of the
theory. Take break - work in canteen/library/emp
ty classroom or here) Feedback from all groups
if time or maybe revisit next week. Overview of
each theory on slides if time Plus handout
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Anomie and Strain Anomie A socially-fostered
state of discontent and deregulation that
generated crime and deviance as part of the
routine functioning of a society which promised
much to everyone but actually denied them equal
access to its attanment (Merton 1938)
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• Anomie and Strain- key features
• Durkheim developed theory of Anomie
• Mechanical societies little division of labour.
• People connected through doing similar things
  having similar experiences
• People are part of the rule making process.
• People sometimes act outside rules and norms.
• Deviance results in a moral response and a
  consensus i reached on how to deal with deviance
• Deviance helps create the system by which the
  community lives
• Little chance of deviating against the moral
  consensus (dealt with quickly)
• However these systems can and often do have
  repressive penal systems

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• Industrialisation break up of smaller
  communities
• Creation of the organic society
• Division of labour jobs are interdependent.
• People work for the common good
• No longer loose moral consenus.
• System of economic regulation to ensure people
  are productive.
• Development of a clear justice system.
• This system leads to anomie (anomos lawless).
• People have little power
• Have little control over their desire

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Merton developed the concept further in work on
Strain Theory Strain occurs when an individual
is offered the cultural goals of a society what
ever they are wealth, education, job
etc. But Has limited opportunity to achieve
them
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Conflict and Sub-cultures Key
Features Inequality between those who have power
and those who dont results in conflict Idea
that groups are controlled through application of
notions of deviance Where there is a consensus
about what is right and wrong crime rate
low Not a consensus crime rate high Dominant
group imposes its norms through the law and
deviant labels We all form transient
sub-cultures (job, friends, parents etc.) Youth
subcultures are transient they share cultural
norms for a while cont/..
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Where balance of power between different groups
is fairly equal differences resolved through
discussion and compromise In an adult-centric
society the power is with adults and not equal.
Thus adults use the criminal law to supress the
weaker group. Box argues criminal justice policy
and criminal statistics focu on the activities of
certain sub-cultural groups Focus is on the
deviance of the powerless R Quinney, S Box
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Labelling, Outsiders and Deviance Amplification
Key Features Focus on societies response to
deviance Idea that penal response to crime can
exacerbate it. If you do something deviant but
no-one reacts self concept not changed Do
something deviant people/society reacts and
calls you deviant you take on that role (self
concept changes)
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Attempt to control criminal acts results in
secondary deviance, repeated deviant behaviour
prompted by deviant label and the self
fulfilling prophecy (I am bad, I am a criminal
thats what I do) Becker and Cohen suggest no
act itself is criminal the law enforcement
apparatus creates crime by labelling it as
such. People who are labelled as deviant viewed
as outsiders Used Mods and Rockers as an
example media amplified the problem.
Howard Becker, Edwin Lemert and Stanley
Cohen
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Control Theory - David Matza Criminal Behviour
represents normality Not why do people commit
crime but why do they not? Lack of internal and
wider, external social controls Young people
offend at a particular stage in life and desist
later as they get older. Young people drift into
delinquency when their internal moral control is
weakened neutralisation (e.g. denial of
responsibility, victim,injury and condemnation of
the condemner and appeal to higher
loyalties) This prevents them from seeing their
actions as harmful This is exacerbated by
institutional response (i.e seek to control
behaviour rather than allowing them to take
responsibility) cont/....
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• Control Theory - Travis Hirschi
• Focus on absence of social controls over young
  peoples behaviourHappens when social bonds are
  not strong
• Strong social bonds rely on
• Attachment to others
• Commitment to the conventional society and
  reluctance to risk deviant behaviour
• Involvement in conventioal activities
• Belief in the values and moral rules of that
  conventional society
• Detachment from these render a person likely to
  offend