3 - Young people and violence: balancing public protection with meeting needs

Summary

Introduction

In recent years there has been much political talk of the need to ‘rebalance’ the criminal justice system in favour of victims of crime. This ethos was given expression in the White Paper Justice for all (Home Office et al, 2002) and in the subsequent 2003 Criminal Justice Act that introduced new, lengthy custodial sentences for the express purpose of public protection. The need for public protection is determined by an assessment of dangerousness by the Crown Court at the point of sentence. ‘Dangerousness’ is defined as ‘significant risk of serious harm to the public’; ‘serious harm’ is defined as ‘… death or serious personal injury, whether physical or psychological’ (s224[3]). These new sentences, Detention for Public Protection (an indeterminate sentence) and the Extended Sentence for Public Protection, may be passed on both adults and young people who offend. This extends the range of long custodial sentences for juveniles, which were hitherto restricted to the detention that may be passed on them for murder and other ‘grave crimes’ under Section 90 and 91 (respectively) of the 2000 Powers of the Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act.

While the desirability of the protection of potential victims from serious harm is not a matter for debate, what is perhaps more questionable is the contextual assumption that being harsher on perpetrators will necessarily always equate to greater benefits for victims and the wider community. A number of authors have expressed suspicion of this stance. For example, ‘[t]he attempt to justify harsher sentencing of offenders and curtailment of civil liberties in the name of victims is not new, and it is part of an international trend, but it has yet to be effectively challenged in England and Wales’ (Williams and Canton, 2005: 2).

Further, Hedderman and Hough (2004) pose the question of whether it is ‘getting tough or being effective’ that matters. That is the issue, which this chapter seeks specifically to address in relation to young people and violence. In so doing, it will first examine the characteristics of young victims; secondly, the characteristics of young people who offend violently; thirdly, the links between the two; and finally the implications for balancing the protection of victims and potential victims with the appropriate means of reducing the ‘dangerousness’ of young perpetrators.