ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the extent to which youth justice in England and Wales protects the rights and well-being of children in conflict with the law in compliance with the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The chapter begins with a brief history of youth justice in England and Wales since the UK became a signatory to the Convention in 1991. Throughout this time the Committee on the Rights of the Child (which monitors the Convention) has been highly critical of the UK for its failure to adequately safeguard the rights and well-being of young people who offend. The chapter then considers the dramatic changes in youth justice in recent years, particularly the significant drop in ‘first time entrants’ and the numbers sentenced to custody. These changes, together with cuts in public spending, have led to the restructuring of the way services to young people who offend are delivered. Research shows that three main models have emerged, and the final part of this chapter focuses specifically on the ‘children and young people first’ (CYPF) model. This attempts to pursue a ‘child-friendly’ and progressive attitude to youth justice which is explicitly guided by the Convention. However, while the CYPF approach is more rights-compliant, the extent to which it fully upholds the principles of the Convention in the sense of addressing young people’s social welfare rights based on social justice principles is questionable.
