Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Table of Cases
- Table of Westminster Statutes
- Table of Scottish Parliament Statutes
- Table of Westminster Statutory Instruments
- Table of Scottish Statutory Instruments
- THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT – ITS GENESIS AND OPERATION
- RIGHTS AND SOCIETY
- PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICES
- JUSTICE AND LEGAL SYSTEM
- 10 The Reform of the Scottish Judiciary
- 11 Criminal Law and Criminal Justice: An Exercise in Ad Hocery
- 12 Juvenile Offending: Welfare or Toughness
- 13 Evidence
- ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT
- Index
12 - Juvenile Offending: Welfare or Toughness
from JUSTICE AND LEGAL SYSTEM
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Table of Cases
- Table of Westminster Statutes
- Table of Scottish Parliament Statutes
- Table of Westminster Statutory Instruments
- Table of Scottish Statutory Instruments
- THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT – ITS GENESIS AND OPERATION
- RIGHTS AND SOCIETY
- PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICES
- JUSTICE AND LEGAL SYSTEM
- 10 The Reform of the Scottish Judiciary
- 11 Criminal Law and Criminal Justice: An Exercise in Ad Hocery
- 12 Juvenile Offending: Welfare or Toughness
- 13 Evidence
- ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The most striking point about offending by juveniles during the period of the Scottish Parliament's existence is the political capital which “dealing with the problem” is perceived to create. The past ten years have been a period in which the media have affirmed and reaffirmed the “problem” of out-of-control youth. While this account has not gone unchallenged, it can be said to have been dominant and it has given governments, both in Westminster and Holyrood, the opportunity to be seen to be taking a firm stance. Such “toughness” is often seen as the province of New Labour – the follow-up to Tony Blair's 1997 election mantra that his party would be “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime”. Almost as soon as the party was first elected nationally, Jack Straw, the then Home Secretary, “unveiled the biggest crackdown on youth crime for fifty years”. It is interesting, therefore, that a similarly robust approach was taken in Scotland, given that, for the first eight years of its existence, the Holyrood Parliament was in the hands of a New Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition. The next chapter in the ongoing youth justice narrative is provided by the shift to an SNP-led administration in May 2007 when the rhetoric softens and a perspective which recognises the interests of young offenders themselves is reintroduced into the debate. These administrations will be identified by the titles they conferred on themselves: the “Scottish Executive” for the Labour/LibDem coalition and the “Scottish Government” for the period when the SNP has been in (minority) control.
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- Law Making and the Scottish ParliamentThe Early Years, pp. 225 - 249Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2011