Evidence Based Policy and Practice in Youth Justice Edited by Anna Stewart, Troy Allard and Susan Dennison

Evidence Based Policy and Practice in Youth Justice is a significant collection that critiques the existing evidence base about the causes and prevention of youth offending in Australia and promotes the further development of this evidence base. It draws on Australian evidence wherever possible, highlighting international evidence where Australian evidence is not available or is conflicting.

Youth advocates, politicians, people interested in working with youth, along with existing practitioners in a diverse range of fields require an understanding about the nature of youth offending and ‘what works’ to prevent offending. The book is organised according to three broad themes that:

• provides up-to-date knowledge about the system and major approaches for understanding youth offending
• explores the usefulness of alternative approaches to prevent offending, and
• identifies the techniques necessary to establish an evidence base to influence decisions and promote change

There is no quick fix to youth offending. Policy makers and practitioners need to critically examine the available evidence and select responses that are most likely to be effective for reducing offending, recognising the multiple contexts in which young people experience risk. This work provides the necessary information and promotes further development of the evidence base so that youth justice systems can better meet the needs of young Australians.

CONTENTS

Preface

Index

REVIEWS

“The collection is a must read for any practitioner in the field of youth justice, either in the research or criminal justice field or involved in policy development or delivering programmes or assisting young people in trouble and or need… It is an excellent tool for persuading policy makers to invest in programmes that do work and ultimately benefit not only an individual child, but the whole community. It will enable such people to act on evidence and not mere whim or ideology.”

John Robertson DCJ, Qld Lawyer, 2012