ABSTRACT
Contemporary youth justice policy and practice is a particularly complex and convoluted feature of the wider justice system, especially in the context of incarceration. Indeed, the question ‘What is prison for?’ is further complicated in the context of children, where the contradiction between the competing goals of welfare and ‘justice’ are reflected in what may be seen as public and political ambivalence towards young offenders. For example, whilst forms of moral panics (Cohen, 1972) have contributed to the popularity of particularly punitive measures, or what Muncie (2004) refers to as a ‘neoconservative authoritarian approach’ to youth crime, others are more likely to see young offenders as children in trouble, as reflected in the competing discourse of a welfare paternalist approach, where the care and guidance of young offenders is recognised as of most importance.
