ABSTRACT
Having spent some time considering the ‘state of play’ in youth justice, it will now make sense to pause and take a step back to consider the contribution to be offered by theoretical insights into the terrain. The preceding overview of contemporary developments suggests a considerable degree of movement and instability in policy and practice, with successive periods of liberalisation and reaction numbering only a few years each. Rapid change appears to be prompted by contingent events, whether these are specific to the territory of youth justice (as in the outbreak of highly dramatic incidences of crime in the early 1990s), or of more generalised impact such as the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Such change may be interpreted as a fundamental feature of the post-modern condition, on the one hand, or as rather more superficial and ephemeral, on the other, effectively distracting attention from deeper-lying and more persistent (and powerful) influences. Thus, for example, individualised assumptions about ‘responsibility’ and associated punitive sentiments may be modified, but remain remarkably constant as the frame through which the behaviour of young people is observed and explained. These deeper currents may be seen to constitute a contextualising force, which may not act constantly or consistently in the same direction, but nonetheless sets the terms and establishes the boundaries for ideas and, indeed, action.
