ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with a range of complexities that pertain to reading the state of juvenile justice in Europe. Three levels of analysis are engaged: transnational/pan-European, inter-national and intra-national/sub-national. It argues that high narratives are theoretically/conceptually flawed and that finer-grained critical inquiry is necessary to comprehend the differentiated nature of European juvenile justice systems. This narrative conceptualizes juvenile justice as embracing human rights priorities and progressing incrementally towards a state of penal tolerance, where the 'best interests' of children and young people prevail and where recourse to juvenile justice intervention – particularly custodial detention – is only ever mobilized as a 'last resort'. The chapter focuses on key transformations bracketed as the 'changing state of Europe', the 'changing state of childhood and youth in Europe' and the 'changing state of juvenile justice'. Such transformations impose formidable challenges and, it will almost certainly shape the future(s) of juvenile justice in Europe.
