Publisher's Synopsis
Many people and agencies are now joining up their ideas and skills in new approaches to tackling the problems of youth crime through youth offending teams. This evidence-based book looks at the realities of joined-up youth justice beyond the ideology and rhetoric of partnership. Anyone who seeks a clearer view of the whole system - whether they are providers, recipients or students of the youth justice services; whether they have a central or more marginal role, should find here an abundance of information and analysis on: how youth offending teams are constructed and what they are trying to achieve; the place of youth offending teams at the heart of the collaborative youth justice plans and the contributions of the various agencies.;This book charts and analyses in-depth the development of an exemplary youth offending team: its strategy, operation management, front-line practice, and its partnership projects. By reflecting on its experiences and analysing them in light of examples from other areas, a more complete picture is drawn of the youth justice system. The authors consider: the challenges faced by the managers, practitioners and project leaders; the ways in which the reforms have affected magistrates, victims and young people; how a wide range of interventions to "nip crime in the bud" or to minimize persistence in crime have been introduced; what is being done to make these interventions work and organizational and partnership problems that are arising and ways that are being developed to resolve them.
