Incarcerating Children

Levels of youth custody in any period are not closely related to the nature and extent of youth crime, but appear instead to be determined, at least in part, by political, social and economic considerations. While David Garland’s account of the development of a new culture of control provides a useful framework for discussing child imprisonment, Bateman argues that the empirical data does not, in any straightforward manner, support the idea of an inexorable rise in youth custody that might be anticipated as a consequence of that analysis.

This book investigates the systemic determinants of youth custodial sentencing in England and Wales and provides a full account of the patterns of youth imprisonment and offers a nuanced explanation of systemic features at different times and in different places.