Former youth justice specialist at the Scottish Government, Stella Perrott, compares our system to the one in Northern Ireland, which she recently helped review

Although Northern Ireland has been responsible for most of its own affairs following the Good Friday Agreement in 1999, responsibility for Justice was not devolved to the Executive until April 2010. To support this development the Department of Justice commissioned a number of independent reviews including reviews of prisons, community safety, criminal records, bail and access to justice. It also commissioned a review of youth justice and the report was published on 26 September 2011.

Children and young people’s offending is much the same across the whole of the UK.

Its onset peaks at about 14 years of age and tails off towards the end of the teenage years.

Offences tend to be clustered near the less serious end of the spectrum with vandalism, theft and breach of the peace being the most common. In Northern Ireland there is a higher level of taking and driving cars than in Scotland and ‘recreational rioting’ by young people is a perennial difficulty, mostly during the summer marching season. Alcohol presents as many problems in Northern Ireland as it does in Scotland with a considerable proportion of young people’s offending being committed while under its influence. Illegal drug misuse features less but, in contrast to the rest of the UK where consumption has flat lined, it is rising in Northern Ireland.

Echoes of the Troubles linger and sectarianism is still a major problem which dominates the lives of working-class young people in part...

Continue reading...