Resources: Review - How rural policies have failed young people

By seeking out the relevant evidence in recent multidisciplinary studies, and in the words of rural young people themselves, the researcher presents a powerful case that "rural policy and practice have failed to meet the needs of young people, particularly those caught up in the youth justice system".

The research took place partly with young people in a small Somerset town and partly in a young offender institution with male prisoners from rural Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

Succinct summaries of key issues facing rural communities and definitions of social exclusion and rurality are covered in a preface to the young people's evidence. There are also helpful discussions on the relationship between young people and rural public spaces and about rural youth crime and the use of drugs and alcohol.