Youth Justice in 2011 is tougher on crime than on the causes of crime. The WritePass Journal

Youth Justice in 2011 is tougher on crime than on the causes of crime. Introduction Youth Justice in 2011 is tougher on crime than on the causes of crime. ), had only been a focus for different governmental departments pre-1997.  Ã‚   Coles (2012) states that the Blair administration was the first to have a Ministry and department (Social Exclusion Unit) specifically for young people to address the NEET problem (Alcock et al: 394) and thereby address the problem of anti-social behaviour.   It was for this reason that the Connexions service was set up Furthermore, the same could be said for the Coalition’s policies regarding criminal justice.   Austerity measures were talked up as being the reasons behind the cuts before the riots.   However, it could be argued that some of the cuts regarding youth justice and its appendages were made too harshly.   Those things that matter to individuals such as education and health are being cut back and this in turn has triggered off the mentality that was inherent in the riots.   According to Will Hutton, as quoted in Ohana and Otten(2011),: We are arriving at a major turning point in our national life.   It is not enough to talk about being tough on crime and the causes of crime.   We need an entire root and branch reshaping of our economy and society – where both rewards and punishment are judicious proportional and deserved, and all within a revived and larger understanding of fairness.We need good capitalism and the good society that accompanies it (Ohana and Otten: 2011: 245) It remains to be seen whether this present Coalition government is going to do anything   about the ‘root and branch’ causes behind youth crime in general and last year’s riots in particular.  Ã‚   The mixed messages given out by the Government seems to indicate that they will be just as tough on the causes of criminality as they will be on criminality itself.   Given the track record of the previous government regarding equality of expenditure between the punishment of crime and the prevention of it, this Coalition government may have a job on their hands in balancing the two. Reference List Blair, T (1997), ‘New Labour because Britain   deserves better’, The 1997 New Labour Manifesto, Available at labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml Cameron, D, (2011), ‘PM’s Speech on the fightback after the riots’, Monday 15th August 2011, Available at number10.gov.uk/news/pms-speech-on-the-fightback-after-the-riots/ Coles, B (2012), ‘Young People’, IN: Alcock, P, May, M, Wright, S, (2012), ‘The Student’s Companion to Social Policy’, 4th Edition, London Hughes,  Ã‚   (2011) Ohana, Y and Otten, H, (2012), ‘Where do you stand?: Intercultural Learning and Political Education in   Contemporary Europe, Wiesbaden, Springer Fachmedien, Germany Raine, J and Keasey, P (2010), ‘Introduction: The Changing Politics of Law and Order’, IN: Doolin, K et al (ed.) (2010.), ‘Whose Criminal Justice?: State or Community?’, Waterside Press, Hook, Hampshire, England Rusbridger, A, (2011), (ed.), ‘Reading the Riots: Investigating England’s summer of disorder’, The Guardian, The London School of Economics and Political Science, Accessed at guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/dec/14/reading-the-riots-investigating-england-s-summer-of-disorder-full-report Sanders, A (2011), ‘What was New Labour thinking? New Labour’s approach to Criminal Justice’, IN: Silvestri, A (ed.), (2011), ‘Lessons for the Coalition: an end of term report on New Labour and criminal justice.’ Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, The Hadley Trust, London Soloman E, and Garside, R, (2008), ‘ Ten Years of Labour’s youth and justice reforms: an Independent audit,   Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, The Hadley Trust, London Available at crimeandjustice.org.uk/opus647/youthjusticeaudit.pdf