Making Youth Justice: Local Penal Cultures and Differential Outcomes – Lessons and Prospects for Policy and Practice Report – Howard League for Penal Reform (May 2021)

Summary

Howard League for Penal Reform report concerned with local penal cultures and the impact on outcomes for children. 

Description

Howard League for Penal Reform has published making youth justice: local penal cultures and differential outcomes – lessons and prospects for policy and practice report.

The report is underpinned by quantitative and qualitative research showing that youth justice is ‘made’ not only by national legislative and policy frameworks but also by practices that are operationalised at the youth justice service/Local Authority Area-level.

In this sense, the otherwise discrete jurisdiction of England and Wales is, in effect, stratified and segmented via local penal cultures that give rise to differential outcomes (particularly when measured in terms of rates of custodial detention). The report illustrates such differential outcomes and provides insight into how they come about and provides lessons and prospects for policy and practice.