ABSTRACT
The first point to note in relation to young people and offending is that the two terms are not synonymous. It is easy to buy into the moral panic that has grown up around ‘youth’ in many countries. As Muncie observes, ‘youth’ and ‘adolescence’, unlike ‘child’ or ‘adult’, are not neutral terms. Rather, they conjure up a range of ‘emotional and troubling images’ which themselves influence the ways in which society responds to them (Muncie, 2004). Given that those working in criminal justice typically encounter young people who have been apprehended for criminal acts and some whose, strictly speaking, non-criminal activity has none the less brought them into the criminal justice system through antisocial behaviour orders, it is important to be aware of how atypical these young people are.
