A quiet revolution? How Scotland delivered less crime without more punishment and why this matters

• In Event: Reflections on Juvenile Justice and Youth Crime - Special Panel Celebrating 25 Years of ESC

Abstract

Abstract: This paper explores the lessons that can be drawn from the Scottish case about what works in delivering justice to children and young people who come into conflict with the law. It tracks the key drivers of policy relating to youth crime and juvenile justice over the past ¼ century and examines their efficacy in tackling offending behaviour. As the paper aims to demonstrate, the Scottish case shows how populist and punitive interventions (ramped up in Scotland in the early mid 2000s) served to exacerbate rather than diminish the key drivers of offending behaviours and have had longer term deleterious impacts. It also shows the ways in which child-centred and more diversionary needs-based measures (implemented from the late 2000s onwards) have been associated with reductions in youth crime. The paper argues that Scotland’s recent quiet revolution should give confidence to other jurisdictions that less crime is possible without recourse to punishment.

Author

• Lesley McAra, Edinburgh University