ABSTRACT
The disjuncture between rhetoric and reality is transparent and it is those children who live at the sharp end of socioeconomic reality who are at greatest risk of becoming the ‘fodder’ of the youth justice system. The Crime and Disorder Act promotes a punitive vision of parental responsibility rooted in constructions of family pathology, ‘problem families’ and ‘crime-prone families’. This chapter analyses the politics of youth justice and to examine the contemporary developments in policy and practice that have stemmed from such politics. Politics is a question of deciding priorities and values Youth justice policy is equally about deciding priorities and values. The notions of re-moralisation and parental responsibility are central features of youth justice policy. Parenting and the family is conceived as the principal site for socialisation and securing social control: differentiating ‘right’ from ‘wrong’, instilling ‘decency’ and regulating the behaviour of children and young people.
