Youth Justice

Assemblages of Penal Goverance, Social Justice and Youth Justice Partnerships

Patricia Gray, from the Plymouth University, made a contribution to the 2012 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in the category “Crime and Society,” under the title “Assemblages of Penal Goverance, Social Justice and Youth Justice Partnerships”. Here is the abstract: In England and Wales youth justice is delivered by multi-agency Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) who are expected to work in partnership with a range of social welfare agencies to provide ‘holistic’ support that targets the interrelated personal and social needs of young offenders associated with their risk of reoffending. This paper engages with criminological debates (for example, Robinson, 2008; Hannah-Moffat and Mauretto, 2012) which attempt to interpret the hybrid assemblages of governance that have characterised late modernity in order to explore why these partnerships have had only limited success in addressing the social context of youth crime. It will be argued, evidenced by an analysis of research data on YOT partnerships in action, that assemblages of penal governance continue to be ‘classed’ in so much as they act as conduits for strategic elements which articulate powerful class interests (along with those of other social forces) to be translated into practice. Such strategic elements sustain class inequality and deny social justice to young people in conflict with the law. While the argument is illustrated by research conducted in England and Wales, the findings have wider implications for theorising the dynamics of agency and diversity in the governance of youth crime across Europe.[rtbs name=”criminology”]

Resources

See Also

Further Reading

• “Assemblages of Penal Goverance, Social Justice and Youth Justice Partnerships”, by Patricia Gray (Proceedings)