This book provides a comprehensive, student-friendly and critical introduction to youth justice in England and Wales, offering a balanced evaluation of its development, rationale, nature and evidence base. It explores the evolution of definitions and explanations of youth offending and examines the responses to it that constitute youth justice. Bringing together theory, policy and practice, this book provides a balanced exposition of contemporary youth justice debates, including detailed discussions of governmental rationales, policy developments, practical issues and an extensive evaluation of critical academic positions. It includes a range of features designed to engage and inspire students: 'Stop and think': Activities challenging students to reflect on important issues. 'Conversations': Discussions of key themes and issues from the perspectives and experiences of relevant stakeholders, including policy makers and activists. 'Telling it like it is': Testimonies giving voice to the personalised, subjective and contentious viewpoints of youth justice influencers. 'Controversies and debates': Prompts to stimulate students to question and critique established knowledge and understanding by considering alternative angles. 'Recurring theme alerts': Boxes flagging recurring themes in the developing construction of youth offending and youth justice. The new edition has been fully revised and updated and includes discussion of revised National Standards in Youth Justice, the new 'Child First' strategic objective for youth justice, the 'trauma informed practice' movement, the impact of coronavirus on children in the Youth Justice System and the continued impact of austerity on policy and practice. This book is essential reading for students taking courses in youth justice, youth offending, youth crime, youth work and social policy.

This topical, accessibly written book moves beyond established critiques to outline a model of positive youth justice: Children First, Offenders Second. Already in use in Wales, the proposed model promotes child-friendly, diversionary, inclusive, engaging, promotional practice and legitimate partnership between children and adults which can serve as a blueprint for other local authorities and countries. Setting out a progressive, positive and principled model of youth justice, the book will appeal to academics, students, practitioners and policy makers seeking to improve working practices and outcomes and will make an important contribution to the debate on youth justice policy.

This book aims to provide an understanding of youth offending and policy and practice responses, particularly the risk-focused approaches that have underpinned much recent academic research, youth justice policy and interventions designed to reduce and prevent problem behaviour. There has been growing concern, however, on the part of critical criminologists and others, about the theoretical, epistemological, methodological and ethical bases of risk-focused research with young people. They have pointed particularly to the overly-deterministic and prescriptive nature of the risk factor paradigm.

This book aims to meet the need for an exploration of youth justice and youth offending which takes account of the origins and contemporary manifestations of risk-focused work with young people. It analyses the influence of concepts of risk upon policy development in both England and Wales as well as internationally, highlighting tensions between the proponents of risk factor research and methodological and ethical criticisms of the risk factor paradigm. It will be essential reading for anybody wishing to understand risk factor explanation of crime, contemporary youth justice policy and responses to offending behaviour.

This book explores the development and implementation of Child First as an innovative guiding principle for improving youth justice systems. Applying contemporary research understandings of what leads to positive child outcomes and safer communities, Child First challenges traditional risk-led and stigmatising approaches to working with children in trouble. It has now been adopted as the four-point guiding principle for all policy and practice across the youth justice system in England and Wales, it is becoming a key reform principle for youth justice in Northern Ireland, and it is increasingly influential across several western jurisdictions. With contributions from academics, policymakers and practitioners, this book critically charts the progress and challenges in establishing a progressive evidence-led youth justice system. Its dynamic and accessible integration of theory, research, policy and practice, alongside discussion of critical themes, makes it a key read for students on youth crime/justice modules and for a wider market. Stephen Case is Professor of Youth Justice in the Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy division at Loughborough University, UK. Neal Hazel is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice in the School of Health and Society at the University of Salford, UK.

Histories of the Revolutionary War have long honored heroines such as Betsy Ross, Abigail Adams, and Molly Pitcher. Now, more than two centuries later, comes the first biography of one of the war's most remarkable women, a beautiful Philadelphia society girl named Peggy Shippen. While war was raging between England and its rebellious colonists, Peggy befriended a suave British officer and then married a crippled revolutionary general twice her age. She brought the two men together in a treasonous plot that nearly turned George Washington into a prisoner and changed the course of the war. Peggy Shippen was Mrs. Benedict Arnold. After the conspiracy was exposed, Peggy managed to convince powerful men like Washington and Alexander Hamilton of her innocence. The Founding Fathers were handicapped by the common view that women lacked the sophistication for politics or warfare, much less treason. And Peggy took full advantage. Peggy was to the American Revolution what the fictional Scarlett O'Hara was to the Civil War: a woman whose survival skills trumped all other values. Had she been a man, she might have been arrested, tried, and executed. And she might have become famous. Instead, her role was minimized and she was allowed to recede into the background-with a generous British pension in hand. In Treacherous Beauty, Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case tell the true story of Peggy Shippen, a driving force in a conspiracy that came within an eyelashof dooming the American democracy.

This book aims to provide an understanding of youth offending and policy and practice responses, particularly the risk-focused approaches that have underpinned much recent academic research, youth justice policy and interventions designed to reduce and prevent problem behaviour. There has been growing concern, however, on the part of critical criminologists and others, about the theoretical, epistemological, methodological and ethical bases of risk-focused research with young people. They have pointed particularly to the overly-deterministic and prescriptive nature of the risk factor paradigm.

This book aims to meet the need for an exploration of youth justice and youth offending which takes account of the origins and contemporary manifestations of risk-focused work with young people. It analyses the influence of concepts of risk upon policy development in both England and Wales as well as internationally, highlighting tensions between the proponents of risk factor research and methodological and ethical criticisms of the risk factor paradigm. It will be essential reading for anybody wishing to understand risk factor explanation of crime, contemporary youth justice policy and responses to offending behaviour.