Exploring Recent Trends in Youth Justice Reconvictions: A Challenge to the Complexity Thesis. (December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bateman, Tim; Wigzell, Alexandra
• Is Part Of: Youth justice. Volume 20:Number 3(2020)
• Page Start: 252
• Page End: 271
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Subjects: community sentence -- complexity thesis -- performance measures -- reconviction rates -- youth justice; Juvenile justice, Administration of -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Youth -- Legal status, laws, etc -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Juvenile corrections -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 364.360941
• DOI: 10.1177/1473225419883707
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1473-2254

Abstract

In recent years, it has become accepted wisdom that children subject to youth justice intervention, in England and Wales, are more complex than previously, as a consequence of a substantial rise in diversion from the system that filters out children with lower levels of need and less entrenched offending. This 'complexity' thesis has been used to explain rises in rates of reoffending. This article demonstrates that the patterns shown in the reoffending data are not those that would be predicted by the complexity thesis. Indeed the data suggest that some groups of children may be less entrenched in offending than hitherto.