ABSTRACT
The rapid growth in youth unemployment during the late 1970s led to massive state intervention under the auspices of the defunct Manpower Services Commission. Housing is an area of social policy which has never focused specifically on young people; the changing experiences of young people in the housing market is a product of broader policy change which has affected general housing provision for the entire population. The growth in crime in general and criminal activity by young people in particular has been a major source of concern for a government committed to law and order. Idealistic ‘individualised treatment’ models for dealing with young offenders, which were favoured in the 1960s and early 1970s, have given way to more realistic ‘justice’ models and questions of economy. The Criminal Justice Act 1991 has re-affirmed the centrality of ‘offence criteria’ in sentencing offenders.
