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169 J.P.N. 1 (2005)

handle is hein.journals/cljw169 and id is 1 raw text is: 1 0 the YOUTH INJUSTICE We all, I hope, agree that the way in which we deal with juvenile delin- quency is vitally important. The suc- cessful rehabilitation and reintegration into normal society of youngsters who have got involved in wrongdoing (I avoid using the word offending delib- erately) should, therefore, be a major social and Government goal which we should spare no reasonable effort or expense to achieve. In my opinion, however, all too often the action we take is counter-productive. Last year, I wrote a number of editorials that were critical of the youth justice system (see (2004) 168 JPN 243, 301 and 325). The crux of my complaint was that to deal with young offenders in a man- ner that was based on much the same principles, procedures and standards that apply in the adult criminal jurisdic- tion was fundamentally wrong. It leads to delay and expense, when timely wel- fare intervention is often crucial, and it wrongly equates youthful misbehav- iour with adult crime. This was to some extent recognized by the authors of the welfare-oriented Children and Young Persons Act 1969, but successive gov- ernments in subsequent years have resiled from this approach in favour of a model that, with the partial exception of the referral order, relies mainly on prosecution and sentencing. Yet every day we see examples of how this fails. Here is a typical one. In March 2004, John, on his 14th birthday, allegedly went with a large group of young people aged between eight and 16 approximately, to a small local nature reserve. John's elder brother, who was the leader of the group, committed an act of cruelty on a cat. This was witnessed by one of the main trustees of the site. He decided to intervene. The group initially dispersed, but John and his elder brother then confronted the trustee. John's brother initially acted in a threatening way to the trustee, but he then backed down. John, however, allegedly fired some pel- lets from a BB gun, hitting the back of the trustee's neck. John's brother apolo- gized for this, and there was no further threatening behaviour. The trustee, however, reported the incident to the police. Their investigation led them to a 15-year-old girl, who had been in the group and was the former girlfriend of the brother. She identified John and his brother as the culprits. A few weeks later, the police arrested John by prior arrangement. He was interviewed in the presence of his stepfather and a solicitor. He presented an alibi defence, which his stepfather confirmed. Although the police had the girl's statement regarding identification they decided to invite the trustee to attend a video identification parade. For logistical reasons this did not take place until about three months from the incident. After a lengthy pause the trustee iden- tified John. John denied the offence, but the trial did not take place until December. It was necessary to obtain a witness summons to compel the girl to attend. She was extremely, and under- standably, unhappy about testifying. John called various family members to support his alibi and claimed that the girl must be grinding an axe. The court acquitted John, a verdict that meant that the court found it was at least possible that the trustee's identi- fication was wrong and the girl (who must have been there) was lying when naming John and his brother as the culprits. This might be thought to be a surprising coincidence of possibilities, but whichever way the trial had gone there would have been a failure of jus- tice. As it was, the trustee was disil- lusioned, the girl suffered an ordeal that will make her even less likely to co-operate with the authorities in the future, John learned a lesson that will hold him in good stead if he offends in the future, and thousands of pounds of public money was spent at no ben- efit at all to the actors involved or society. The justice approach was a disaster all round. Anything else would have been better, but until we learn a new approach to alleged juve- nile delinquency cases like this arise time and time again. AJT Volume 169 JUSTICE Ofthe PEACE 1 EDITORIAL

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