Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Risk assessment and risk management: the right approach?
- 2 Risk in practice: systems and practitioner judgement
- 3 Young people and violence: balancing public protection with meeting needs
- 4 Mental health, risk and antisocial behaviour in young offenders: challenges and opportunities
- 5 Serious incidents in the youth justice system: management and and accountability
- 6 Working with young people in a culture of public protection
- 7 Never too early? Reflections on research and interventions for early developmental prevention of serious harm
- Conclusions
Conclusions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Risk assessment and risk management: the right approach?
- 2 Risk in practice: systems and practitioner judgement
- 3 Young people and violence: balancing public protection with meeting needs
- 4 Mental health, risk and antisocial behaviour in young offenders: challenges and opportunities
- 5 Serious incidents in the youth justice system: management and and accountability
- 6 Working with young people in a culture of public protection
- 7 Never too early? Reflections on research and interventions for early developmental prevention of serious harm
- Conclusions
Summary
The contributions to this volume raise important policy questions in respect of three overlapping areas: the prevention of serious violent crime by early intervention with children at risk; the assessment of young people once they are in the criminal justice system; and the management and treatment of young offenders in the community and in institutions.
Early intervention
As far as prevention is concerned, one main dilemma is the extent to which it is possible or desirable to target children for an intervention at an early stage in their lives, before they have committed a crime. Ros Burnett speculates on the prospect of infants being locked up for future crimes on the basis of prediction, setting this against the increasingly prevalent view that ‘the current willingness to allow at-risk children to develop unimpeded into serious chronic offenders represents an inexcusable policy failure and threat to public safety’ (Cullen, 2006). In 2006 Tony Blair argued that:
Where it is clear, as it very often is, at young age, that children are at risk of being brought up in a dysfunctional home where there are multiple problems, say of drug abuse or offending, then instead of waiting until the child goes off the rails, we should act early enough, with the right help, support and disciplined framework for the family, to prevent it. (Blair, 2006b)
He went on to claim that ‘you can detect and predict the children and families likely to go wrong’ and that:
There has been great progress in our ability to spot the risk factors associated with subsequent anti-social behaviour. Of course prediction will never be perfect. But the combination of risk and protection means that we can now be reasonably confident that we can identify likely problems at a very early stage.
Burnett (Chapter 7: 106, this volume) offers a more measured view about prediction: ‘Does the research on risk factors and the assessment tools to which they have given rise provide a level of predictive accuracy on which we can rely? The short answer is “no”.’ Tools, it seems, do not predict all those who will go on to commit crime and they identify some who will not.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Young People and 'Risk' , pp. 113 - 119Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2007