ABSTRACT
In terms of youth diversion, certain ever present features may be identifiable, and perhaps in turn linked to deeper ideological currents and conflicting interests within and beyond the criminological sphere. Youth diversion is characterised by competing paradigms, and unresolved conflicts between different positions. In order to explore the areas of uncertainty and disagreement, it may be useful firstly to draw on an influential attempt to account for the narratives of change which are brought to bear on developments in criminal justice, namely the framework offered by Stanley Cohen in the important and influential book, Visions of Social Control. Cohen suggests three alternative narratives of change which can be seen to permeate depictions of patterns and trends in criminal justice policy, namely: uneven progress; good intentions; or discipline and mystification. These accounts of the changing nature of the justice system are clearly shaped by very different assumptions about wider processes of social development, governance and social organisation.
