Caroline Ball, a lecturer with research interests in youth justice at the University of East Anglia, said that whoever wins the election should look back at the policies of the 1980s when youth imprisonment fell dramatically. She said the key then was "interconnection between all the elements of the youth justice system".
Lesley McAra, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Edinburgh, said the governments of England and Wales could learn from the work done in Scotland on youth justice.
She said the children's hearings system, which works with young offenders or those in need of care, was effective at diverting young people from crime at an early age.
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