At the NSPCC, where I sit on a research advisory group, we discuss the costs and consequences of child maltreatment. The difficulty is that there's no clear relationship between the various intervention options and the incidence of maltreatment, which is not to say that the interventions are ineffective. It's not unlike the incidence of youth offending which, in the final analysis, has little to do with the decisions of the criminal courts.
TUESDAY: Working at home on a chapter for a book I've entitled The Risks of Risk-Preoccupation. My thesis is that when legislation provides sentencers with an unprioritised potpourri of conflicting purposes, public protection tends to win out. And when probation officers and youth offending team workers are guided by what the Youth Justice Board terms a risk-proportionate "Scaled Approach", the lesson of history is that everyone becomes more risk averse and our interventions more intensely punitive. When I can't concentrate on this I'm mesmerised by the news, the banking crisis and the Conservative Party conference trying to make the news.
Register Now to Continue Reading
Thank you for visiting Children & Young People Now and making use of our archive of more than 60,000 expert features, topics hubs, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:
What's Included
-
Free access to 4 subscriber-only articles per month
-
Email newsletter providing advice and guidance across the sector
Already have an account? Sign in here