How should English courts respond to children who commit crime?
Last week the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Operation and Effectiveness of the Youth Court released their final report. The report contains a series of findings and recommendations for improving responses to children who commit crime and are bought within the confines of the criminal justice system at a young age. Led by Lord Carlile QC, the inquiry has made a series of recommendations for reform to the court’s response to children who commit crime. The recommendations prioritise the welfare of the child and emphasise the need to reduce the stigma of child offending, to ensure child defendants can understand the court process and to divert children away from the formal processes of the justice system wherever possible.
Deakin Criminologist Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon, who is currently in the UK undertaking research on the law’s response to children who commit lethal violence, attended the Launch of the inquiry’s final report at House of Lords on Thursday 19 June.
Read Kate’s article on The Justice Gap examining the findings and recommendations of the inquiry here.
To read the final report of the Parliament Inquiry, click here.