Dwaine's story might be slightly unusual. But there is nothing new in naughty children being treated like criminals. Today's politicians may be preoccupied about the menace posed by chewing gum and graffiti. In Victorian England children throwing snowballs or sliding on ice were liable to feel the long arm of the law. One magistrate remarked in 1852 that "the characters of children brought up in town are so precociously developed that I should find it difficult to mention any age at which they should not be treated as criminals".
Historical parallels can be misleading. But in this case they are instructive in understanding the trajectory of the youth justice system. Nacro's report, A failure of justice: Reducing child imprisonment, highlights the dramatic increase in the number of children being sent to prison over the past decade, and this at a time when youth crime has fallen quite significantly.
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