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Criminal Justice and Violent Young Offenders

NCJ Number
173794
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 37 Issue: 2 Dated: May 1998 Pages: 148-160
Author(s)
G R Boswell
Date Published
1998
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper draws on the findings of two British research studies (Boswell 1991, 1995) to examine some of the characteristics of violent young offenders as well as the exercise of professional discretion in the sentencing and custodial progressions of such offenders.
Abstract
The files of 78 adult prisoners, 59 juvenile inmates, and 63 residents of Department of Health facilities were examined by a team of three researchers. Young people between the ages of 10 and 17 who commit serious crimes are invariably sentenced to be detained under Section 53 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. Subsection (1) provides that such children convicted of murder be detained during Her Majesty's Pleasure for an indeterminate period. Subsection (2) of the 1933 Act provides that children convicted of serious crimes, usually involving actual or intended violence, that would attract a sentence of imprisonment of 14 years or more in the case of an adult be detained for indeterminate periods in excess of the normal custodial limit for the age group. A population profile of Section 53 offenders as of October 31, 1994, was developed. Child abuse and loss have been highlighted as potentially significant factors in an early piece of research on Section 53 offenders (Boswell 1991). In order to identify levels of abuse and loss, researchers subsequently drew on data from 200 files and 32 interviews with Section 53 offenders. In only 18 out of 200 cases studied were there no recorded or personally reported evidence of abuse and/or loss. The number who had experienced both abuse and loss was 35 percent, suggesting that the presence of a double childhood trauma may be a potent factor in the backgrounds of violent offenders. It is important that this group of offenders be viewed as responsible and accountable for their behavior, rather than as helpless victims of their trauma, but they should have a systematic and consistent career plan offered and implemented to reform their behavior. 5 tables and 31 references