Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology
1. Youth, crime and community reactions
1.1 Historical perspective
1.2 View on youth
1.3 Stanley Cohen’s Mods & Rockers
1.3.1 A Shift in Focus: From Individual Traits to Social Reaction
1.3.2 The events in Clacton-on-Sea (1964)
2. Young minds, old legal problems
2.1 Introduction: criminal responsibilities of adolescents
2.1.1 The Conversation article, case of Ghey
2.2 Minimal age of criminal responsibility (MACR)
2.2.1 Concept
2.2.2 Principles / guidelines for establishing MACR
2.3 Young minds, old legal problems
2.3.1 Arthur (2016) on criminal responsibility and evolving capacities
2.3.2 Wishart (2018)
2.3.3 Conclusion
3. Potential and pitfalls of risk factor research
3.1 Developmental and life-course criminology (DLC)
3.1.X David Farrington
3.1.X Terrie Moffitt
3.2 Risk factor research: a critical analysis
3.2.1 Does it actually work?
3.2.2 Is it a legitimate or desirable strategic aim? Can it be justified in principle?
3.2.3 Risk of reduction
3.3 Conclusion on risk factor research
4. Criminalizing youth in public space
4.0 Anti-social behaviour (ASB)
4.1 Criminalising sociability: ASB legislation
4.2 The usual suspects: street-life, young people and the police
4.3 Local governance of safety and the normalisation of behaviour
4.3.1 Administrative sanctions system (Belgium)
4.3.2 Broader implications
4.3.3 Three case studies
4.4 Post-pandemic police-youth relations
4.4.1 Policing the pandemic
4.4.2 Post-pandemic police-youth relations
4.5 General conclusions
5. Diversion and desistance from crime
5.1 Desistance from crime in the transition to adulthood
5.2 The case for diversion and minimum necessary intervention
5.2.1 The research and policy context
5.2.2 Edinburgh study (of youth transitions and crime)
5.2.3 The links between juvenile justice interventions and offending behaviour
6. Punishing the young
6.1 Proportionate sentences for juveniles
6.1.1 Reasoning
6.1.2 Conclusion
6.2 Principle and critique: punishing juveniles
Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology 1
, 6.2.1 Reframing punishment
6.2.2 Criminal punishment: restoration and retribution
6.2.3 Conclusion
7. Restorative justice meets the good lives model
7.1 Youth justice in Flanders: a responsibility model
7.1.1 Historical overview
7.1.2 Responsibility of young offender
7.2 Responsibility and restorative justice
7.2.1 Restorative justice as third way
7.2.2 Restorative justice’s conception of responsibility
7.2.3 Conclusion
7.3 Restorative justice meets Good Lives Model (GLM)
7.3.1 Restorative Justice
7.3.2 Good Lives Model
7.3.3 Common grounds
8. Child friendly justice
8.1 Child-friendly justice: past, present and future
8.1.1 Child-friendly justice
8.1.2 Guidelines on Child-friendly Justice
8.2 Children first, offender second (CFOS)
8.2.1 Positive youth justice: a new model
8.3 Exercise: ‘last resort’ principle?
9. Documentary: ‘The Fear Factory’
9.1 Link with classes
10. Concluding the course
10.1 Public criminology?
Anglosaxon tradition, dominance in research
1. Youth, crime and community reactions
1.1 Historical perspective
No seperate category (before 19th century)
Youth as a seperate concept or category (19th century)
Caused by
Industrialisation
Longer study periods (opportunity to go to school), democratisation educational systems
The century of the child (Ellen Key)
Youth as a scientific discipline (End 19th - early 20th century)
Creation of sub disciplines within social sciences relating to youth
Especially social sciences, because medicine was probably sooner
Youth as a subculture (mid 20th century)
Commodification (= turning into economic good) of this fase of life
Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology 2
, Because development of youth subcultures = different interests, style, music taste …
Tension around studying youth subcultures because of different behaviour en interests compared to
other people in society
Concerns when behaviour changes
Ambiguity / duality related to behaviour
Dances seen as demonic
Subcultures examples
Rock & Roll
Mods
Rockers
Hippies
Punk
Skinheads
New wave, gothic
Reaction of society to the youth subcultures
Ambiguity in their behaviour, cultural interest and in the way the subculture is defined
Young people making their own choices
Choices are concern to broader society
1.2 View on youth
Youth always seen as
Our hope and future
As our fear
Traditional distinction, duality, dichotimy, ambivilance
Dichotomy
Youth at risk = concern for youth
Youth as risk = youth as part of concern
Reactions
Welfare and protectionist
Innocent youth, not able to behave in way to concern society
Bad behaviours is caused by society
Punitive and controlling
Not much differentiation between youth and adults
Cultural examples
Head of Janus
Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology 3
, Roman mythology
Double-sided head: one looks to future (good) and one to history (bad)
Humans are inherently good and bad
Boy holding hand grenade
Picture of Diane Arbus
Children playing, but hidden danger
Girl smoking
Picture of Joseph Szabo
Tension between
Children can make their own choices
Choices we don’t agree with
The Offspring - Come out and play
Film Kids
Children do not behave the way we expect them to
Children / adolescents
An old new malaise = long existing tension
Threat to social / moral order
Nostalgia in public condemnation of behaviour of young people
21th century as ‘century of the child as risk’?
More awareness
More study on children confronting us with risks
Confrontation for the first time with certain problem
Example riots between ‘Brussels’ groups of ‘youth’, other people and with police (Blankenberge)
But not new: incidents between subcultures and other people and police (Clacton-on-sea)
Two examples 60 years apart
Similarity
Throwing of beach furniture
Multiple arrests
1.3 Stanley Cohen’s Mods & Rockers
Stanley Cohen - Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers (1972)
1.3.1 A Shift in Focus: From Individual Traits to Social Reaction
Bulk of research on juvenile delinquency relates to delinquents traits
Explanation to behaviour at the individual level
Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology 4
1. Youth, crime and community reactions
1.1 Historical perspective
1.2 View on youth
1.3 Stanley Cohen’s Mods & Rockers
1.3.1 A Shift in Focus: From Individual Traits to Social Reaction
1.3.2 The events in Clacton-on-Sea (1964)
2. Young minds, old legal problems
2.1 Introduction: criminal responsibilities of adolescents
2.1.1 The Conversation article, case of Ghey
2.2 Minimal age of criminal responsibility (MACR)
2.2.1 Concept
2.2.2 Principles / guidelines for establishing MACR
2.3 Young minds, old legal problems
2.3.1 Arthur (2016) on criminal responsibility and evolving capacities
2.3.2 Wishart (2018)
2.3.3 Conclusion
3. Potential and pitfalls of risk factor research
3.1 Developmental and life-course criminology (DLC)
3.1.X David Farrington
3.1.X Terrie Moffitt
3.2 Risk factor research: a critical analysis
3.2.1 Does it actually work?
3.2.2 Is it a legitimate or desirable strategic aim? Can it be justified in principle?
3.2.3 Risk of reduction
3.3 Conclusion on risk factor research
4. Criminalizing youth in public space
4.0 Anti-social behaviour (ASB)
4.1 Criminalising sociability: ASB legislation
4.2 The usual suspects: street-life, young people and the police
4.3 Local governance of safety and the normalisation of behaviour
4.3.1 Administrative sanctions system (Belgium)
4.3.2 Broader implications
4.3.3 Three case studies
4.4 Post-pandemic police-youth relations
4.4.1 Policing the pandemic
4.4.2 Post-pandemic police-youth relations
4.5 General conclusions
5. Diversion and desistance from crime
5.1 Desistance from crime in the transition to adulthood
5.2 The case for diversion and minimum necessary intervention
5.2.1 The research and policy context
5.2.2 Edinburgh study (of youth transitions and crime)
5.2.3 The links between juvenile justice interventions and offending behaviour
6. Punishing the young
6.1 Proportionate sentences for juveniles
6.1.1 Reasoning
6.1.2 Conclusion
6.2 Principle and critique: punishing juveniles
Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology 1
, 6.2.1 Reframing punishment
6.2.2 Criminal punishment: restoration and retribution
6.2.3 Conclusion
7. Restorative justice meets the good lives model
7.1 Youth justice in Flanders: a responsibility model
7.1.1 Historical overview
7.1.2 Responsibility of young offender
7.2 Responsibility and restorative justice
7.2.1 Restorative justice as third way
7.2.2 Restorative justice’s conception of responsibility
7.2.3 Conclusion
7.3 Restorative justice meets Good Lives Model (GLM)
7.3.1 Restorative Justice
7.3.2 Good Lives Model
7.3.3 Common grounds
8. Child friendly justice
8.1 Child-friendly justice: past, present and future
8.1.1 Child-friendly justice
8.1.2 Guidelines on Child-friendly Justice
8.2 Children first, offender second (CFOS)
8.2.1 Positive youth justice: a new model
8.3 Exercise: ‘last resort’ principle?
9. Documentary: ‘The Fear Factory’
9.1 Link with classes
10. Concluding the course
10.1 Public criminology?
Anglosaxon tradition, dominance in research
1. Youth, crime and community reactions
1.1 Historical perspective
No seperate category (before 19th century)
Youth as a seperate concept or category (19th century)
Caused by
Industrialisation
Longer study periods (opportunity to go to school), democratisation educational systems
The century of the child (Ellen Key)
Youth as a scientific discipline (End 19th - early 20th century)
Creation of sub disciplines within social sciences relating to youth
Especially social sciences, because medicine was probably sooner
Youth as a subculture (mid 20th century)
Commodification (= turning into economic good) of this fase of life
Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology 2
, Because development of youth subcultures = different interests, style, music taste …
Tension around studying youth subcultures because of different behaviour en interests compared to
other people in society
Concerns when behaviour changes
Ambiguity / duality related to behaviour
Dances seen as demonic
Subcultures examples
Rock & Roll
Mods
Rockers
Hippies
Punk
Skinheads
New wave, gothic
Reaction of society to the youth subcultures
Ambiguity in their behaviour, cultural interest and in the way the subculture is defined
Young people making their own choices
Choices are concern to broader society
1.2 View on youth
Youth always seen as
Our hope and future
As our fear
Traditional distinction, duality, dichotimy, ambivilance
Dichotomy
Youth at risk = concern for youth
Youth as risk = youth as part of concern
Reactions
Welfare and protectionist
Innocent youth, not able to behave in way to concern society
Bad behaviours is caused by society
Punitive and controlling
Not much differentiation between youth and adults
Cultural examples
Head of Janus
Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology 3
, Roman mythology
Double-sided head: one looks to future (good) and one to history (bad)
Humans are inherently good and bad
Boy holding hand grenade
Picture of Diane Arbus
Children playing, but hidden danger
Girl smoking
Picture of Joseph Szabo
Tension between
Children can make their own choices
Choices we don’t agree with
The Offspring - Come out and play
Film Kids
Children do not behave the way we expect them to
Children / adolescents
An old new malaise = long existing tension
Threat to social / moral order
Nostalgia in public condemnation of behaviour of young people
21th century as ‘century of the child as risk’?
More awareness
More study on children confronting us with risks
Confrontation for the first time with certain problem
Example riots between ‘Brussels’ groups of ‘youth’, other people and with police (Blankenberge)
But not new: incidents between subcultures and other people and police (Clacton-on-sea)
Two examples 60 years apart
Similarity
Throwing of beach furniture
Multiple arrests
1.3 Stanley Cohen’s Mods & Rockers
Stanley Cohen - Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers (1972)
1.3.1 A Shift in Focus: From Individual Traits to Social Reaction
Bulk of research on juvenile delinquency relates to delinquents traits
Explanation to behaviour at the individual level
Juvenile Justice and Youth Criminology 4
