ABSTRACT
A principal aim of comparative criminal justice research is to explore the relationship between the characteristics of dierent criminal justice systems and the specic cultural contexts within which they are located (see Nelken 1994, 1997). e Scottish system of juvenile justice provides a useful point of comparison with other Western juvenile justice systems primarily because the distinctive nature of Scottish civic and political culture has enabled the system to resist the trends evident in many other Western systems toward populist punitiveness (see McAra 2008).
