Research into youth justice and the effective practice agenda

Abstract

Since the publication of the Audit Commission's seminal report Misspent Youth in 1996, there has been a growing preoccupation within youth justice services towards an evidenced based approach in reducing offending amongst children and young people. This cannot be seen in isolation from the ‘what works’ literature of the adult correctional services and New Labour's modernisation agenda. The emphasis on audit and hard evidence in the design and delivery of public services has been at the heart of a central drive to improve youth justice services. The purpose of this article is not to rehearse the different interpretations of evidence-based practice within correctional services as readers can find detailed analysis elsewhere (see, in particular, Burnett and Roberts, 2004; Stephenson, 2004). Nevertheless, it is worth considering the Youth Justice Board's approach, commonly known as ‘effective practice’, to gain insight into the political and cultural changes initiated by research findings.