‘Police should harass young thugs – Smith’. Guardian readers who thought Gordon Brown’s government had ushered in a break with the punitive rhetoric of the ‘respect agenda’ received a rude awakening in the week after the local elections, with a rabble-rousing speech by the home secretary. The government clearly still feels it has to engage in macho posturing, even though studies have found that repeated police contact can actually prevent young people from giving up crime.
The real test of Labour’s new approach will come next month with the launch of a cross-departmental youth crime plan. This should be a chance for Jacqui Smith, Ed Balls and Jack Straw to set out a progressive – and populist – vision based on effective, tough but fair solutions that can challenge the Tory narrative of the ‘broken society’.
A recent government-commissioned review concluded that ‘coercive’ interventions, including surveillance, curfews, community penalties and incarceration, tend to be ineffective – or actually increase levels of reoffending. A wide range of alternatives have been shown to be more effective if they are ‘developmental’ – seeking to provide young offenders with an increased range of personal resources to divert them away from crime – improving self-esteem, changing attitudes, developing personal and social skills. Policies should focus on the individual and their family, school and community environment.
However, turning the clock back to a purely ‘welfare-oriented’ approach to youth crime – where the needs of the child (offender) are predominant over other aims – remains an unrealistic goal, both politically and from the point of view of effective crime reduction and wider justice objectives. We know that ‘fear of getting caught’ is an important deterrent for would-be offenders. Communities need to be able to send ‘positive control signals’, such as neighbourhood regeneration or reassurance policing, to shape behavioural norms. Victims have the right to reparation and voters demand simple fables of wrongs being righted.
The youth crime action plan needs to set out a narrative that encompasses the wider aims and interests in youth justice. A progressive but populist alternative should be based on reducing the impact of crime on victims through tough but fair policies to ensure that troublesome youths are challenged and their behaviour is addressed effectively, but focusing the criminal justice system on the most serious cases.
In the East Renfrewshire suburb of Glasgow a partnership between schools, social work, police and community services – based on the Danish model – provides a prompt, coordinated response to children at risk of becoming criminals. A multidisciplinary rapid response team with pooled funding agrees a joined-up package for each case referred by a range of local agencies.
For young people who do get involved in crime, a restorative justice approach should be the first resort. Young offenders should repair the damage of their offence to victims and address their problems leading to crime, being held to account by members of their community. Restorative justice should be a diversion away from the criminal justice system, not just a sentence following criminal prosecution. This approach has been pioneered in New Zealand and was recently introduced in Northern Ireland, with promising early results.
Democracy, justice and public safety mean that criminal courts and custody will still be needed, but they should be focused on the most serious offenders, as is the approach in Scotland. Where young people have very deep-rooted problems and pose a threat to society they may need to be taken out of circulation. But this should be an opportunity for constructive (and restorative) rehabilitation, and resettlement on release.
This progressive, populist approach should aim to challenge and solve youth behaviour, rather than tolerate and excuse (or harass and condemn). This July’s plan should be the platform for a united Labour government to set out a new direction on youth crime, with the reduction of victimisation at its heart.