Hiding children away in prisons is no way to beat youth crime / Guardian, 15 July 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/15/youthjustice?gusrc=rss&feed=society
Barbara Hearn
"The nation is rightly concerned about teenagers and crime. If you were to judge from some media reports, you would think that the public is crying out for harsher sentencing and increased imprisonment. But when you actually ask them, the public show us how much more sophisticated they are than that."

Work together to uncover the causes of youth crime / Guardian, 6 July 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/06/knifecrime.ukcrime?gusrc=rss&feed=society
"The government points to figures showing a decline in the overall crime rate to show that its approach is working. But as an epidemic of fatal knife attacks in the capital shows, those assertions do not reflect many people's experience of insecurity walking the streets. Already, 18 teenagers have died a violent death in London this year. The government's response has been to promise a crackdown - increased police powers and tougher sentences. That might be reassuring were it not such a tired refrain. The Conservatives, meanwhile, offer no alternative."

How to implement a model to get youth off drugs and out of crime / Reclaiming Futures, 2007
http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/reclaimingfuturesimplementmodel2008.pdf
Tom Begich et al
“This report outlines lessons learned from the 10 Reclaiming Futures demonstration sites as they implemented a systemwide change to improve how adolescents with alcohol and drug problems are handled in the juvenile justice system, and provides a road map for communities that wish to help local juvenile justice systems tackle these problems”

Thematic Inspection: Care of detained and arrested children / HM Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland, 26 June 2008
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/24085717/0
PDF - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/24085717/7

Youth crime is the symptom of a wider disease / Guardian, 3 July 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/02/knifecrime.youthjustice?gusrc=rss&feed=society
Jonathan Rutherford
"Gun culture thrives where social life is dying. The working-class estates devastated by de-industrialisation are where a defeated, unwanted people have been herded away to suffer a self-inflicted fate of drugs and violence. Decades of unemployment have destroyed the old patriarchal order of male breadwinner and head of household. Not only has it meant poverty, it has lost many men their dignity and self- worth. In communities deprived of the markers of status that bring respect, violence takes the place of authority. Sons inherit the legacy of their fathers' humiliation. Without work and affordable housing, it is impossible for many to create an independent life of their own. The traditional rites of passage into adulthood – leaving home, getting a job, establishing a family, and taking on legal obligations and rights – disappear."

Scientifically valid prevention programs cut rates of juvenile delinquency / Eureka Alert, 23 June 2008
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/uow-svp062308.php
Joel Schwarz
"The early finding comes from the Community Youth Development Study that is tracking the behavior of more than 4,400 students for five years in the 12 pairs of small-to moderate-size towns. The data come from the third year of the study, which is continuing. "This finding is very important because early initiation of delinquent behavior in children before the age of 14 is a predictor of later substance abuse, chronic criminal behavior and mental health problems," said J. David Hawkins, lead author and director of the study. "It is exciting because we didn't expect to find these community-wide effects until about five years. The seventh grade is still pretty young and this may bode well for other behavioral outcomes." The study is being conducted by the UW's Social Development Research Group, a part of the School of Social Work, with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention."
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Cherie Booth: Knife crime is more common than statistics say / Guardian, 1 July 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/01/cherieblair.justice?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews
Jenny Percival
"Cherie Booth told MPs today that knife and gun crime among young people was more common than the official statistics suggest. The wife of former prime minister Tony Blair said that the statistics were particularly poor at reflecting the extent to which under-16s carry weapons. Her comments, as the chair of an inquiry into young people and weapons, follow a series of high-profile teenage deaths at the hands of other youngsters."

Teenagers targeted in crime crackdown / Independent, 23 June 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/teenagers-targeted-in-crime-crackdown-852335.html
Nigel Morris
"Thousands more teenagers are being dragged into the criminal justice system for petty offences, threatening to set them on the path to adult crime, ministers are warned today. The numbers of under-18s being convicted or formally cautioned has almost doubled in some parts of the country, the Institute for Public Policy Research has disclosed."

Drinking binge which ended in murder / BBC, 20 June 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7463525.stm
Chris Summers
"Two under-age drinkers - one just 13 - have been jailed for sexually assaulting and killing a 24-year-old woman in Essex in a case that the local MP has described as "a savage indictment of Britain's binge-drinking culture"."

Restorative Justice guidance and protocols for practitioners working with young people and those harmed by their behaviour / Scottish Government, 11 June 2008
PDF - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/10143757/6

Preventing Offending by Young People: A Framework for Action / Scottish Government, 19 June 2008
PDF - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/17093513/7

Planned changes to youth justice system aimed at keeping more children out of jail / Guardian, 17 June 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jun/17/youthjustice.justice1
Alan Travis
"A shakeup of the youth justice system is being planned by ministers that would see a failing punitive policy replaced by a more welfare-oriented, early-intervention approach to dealing with children in trouble. As part of a youth crime action plan to be published this summer, the Home Office has recommended that responsibility and funding for tackling youth crime - including local youth offending teams - should be moved to new, local authority-run "children's trusts"."

Leave those kids alone / Guardian, 9 June 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/09/children.ukcrime?gusrc=rss&feed=society
Rowenna Davis
"According to a new report from the UK's children's commissioners, our young people are not becoming increasingly criminal; our society is simply treating them like they are. The report states that whilst crime committed by children fell between 2002 and 2006, the numbers being criminalised went up by over a quarter. This clampdown might be justified if the offences were actually causing harm. But many young people are now being subject to authoritarian interference before they have actually done anything tangible. They are, for example, chastised for "hanging around" certain areas or wearing hoodies. In Essex, "forward intelligence teams" allow police officers to follow and record young individuals who might engage in antisocial behaviour. Being perceived as a threat, it seems, now constitutes an offence worthy of police intervention."
PDF - http://www.11million.org.uk/resource/31f7xsa2gjgfc3l9t808qfsi.pdf

[USA] Youths Who Use Stimulants Nonmedically More Likely to Report Illicit Drug Use and Other Delinquent Behaviors
CESAR FAX, March 3, 2008 Vol. 17, Issue 9
PDF - http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/cesarfax/vol17/17-09.pdf
US. University of Maryland

Educational inequality and juvenile crime: an area-based analysis / DCSF, 28 February 2008
PDF - http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-WBL-02-08.pdf
"This study examines the relationship between educational inequality and juvenile conviction rates for different offences for three recent cohorts of young people in England. The research is innovative in the application of statistical methods to provide a robust estimate of the relationship between educational inequality and crime."

Distinguishing Juvenile Homicide From Violent Juvenile Offending
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 52, No. 2, 158-174 (2008)
http://ijo.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/52/2/158?rss=1
Frank DiCataldo ; Meghan Everett
"Juvenile homicide is a social problem that has remained a central focus within juvenile justice research in recent years. Research has attempted to conceptualise adolescent murderers as a clinical category that can be reliably distinguished from their nonhomicidal counterparts. This study examined 33 adolescents adjudicated delinquent or awaiting trial for murder and 38 adolescents who committed violent, nonhomicidal offences to determine whether the two groups differed significantly on family history, early development, delinquency history, mental health, and weapon possession variables. Two key factors did distinguish the homicide group: These adolescents endorsed the greater availability of guns and substance abuse at the time of their commitment offences. The significance of this finding is discussed, and the implications for risk management and policy are reviewed."
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Pervasive Developmental Disorders and Criminal Behaviour: A Case Control Study
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 52, No. 2, 196-205 (2008)
http://ijo.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/52/2/196?rss=1
Svend Erik Mouridsen ; Bente Rich ; Torben Isager ; Niels Jørgen Nedergaard
"The prevalence and pattern of criminal behaviour in a population of 313 former child psychiatric in-patients with pervasive developmental disorders were studied."
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Girls Don't Follow Trends in Marijuana Risk, Researchers Say / Join Together, 4 March 2008
http://digbig.com/4wnjn
"Risk of marijuana use among "deviance-prone" adolescent males tends to rise and fall with national drug-use trends, but the same is not true for girls. Deviance-prone girls are as likely to use marijuana during times where marijuana use is less popular. The research will appear in the March 2008 issue of the journal Prevention Science."

Make Me a Criminal: Preventing youth crime / IPPR, 10 February 2008
PDF - http://digbig.com/4wjfj
Julia Margo

[Scotland] Attitudes Towards Youth Crime and Willingness to Intervene: Findings from the 2006 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey / Scottish Parliament, 4 February 2008
PDF - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/210989/0055764.pdf
Scott Anderson and Fiona Dobbie
[Scotland] Attitudes Towards Youth Crime and Willingness to Intervene: Findings from the 2006 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey - Research Findings / Scottish Parliament, 4 February 2008
PDF - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/210985/0055763.pdf
Scott Anderson and Fiona Dobbie