The Youth Justice - Essay Example

Introduction Youth are considered as one of the most important members of the society because they form the active strata of population which is considered as a potent force with the capabilities to take the nations to new heights. Thus it is very important that the youth should be nurtured in a way that they can be developed as positive and constructive members of the society with more positive outlook about life and society as a whole. Considering the significance of the same, those youth who due to some reasons or other fall into the criminal activities or activities which can push them into the legal proceedings with the potential outcome of ending into jail, require special treatment from the society as a whole therefore those who deal with the youth justice need to have sound knowledge and ethical practical orientation in order to ensure that youth are properly rehabilitated and brought back to the society as constructive and more productive members of the society. However, it also must be noted that Youth justice is currently being viewed in different perspectives than it used to be. Many view the current reforms in youth justice due to modernization of the governments and political systems to accommodate the issues like young justice however there is also another dimension to it also as the emergence of private practice into the youth justice have significantly contributed to this issue also. However one also need to consider the fact that these youth justice practices lack the effective quality assurance systems and procedures in place which can ensure that the practice is being done on more professional as well as ethical footings. This essay will argue the role of quality assurance system to be designed to measure the effective practice in youth justice and will attempt to explore the issue from different perspectives so that a balanced view of the same can emerge. Youth justice It has been argued that the public opinion and media attention towards the young justice has not been the same as it has remained for the adult justice therefore there is a wide gap in the understanding of the issues related with the youth justice. (Sprott). Since it is believed that media plays an important role in shaping the society therefore attention must also have been given to this issue so that a positive critic of the same could have helped provide a better understanding of the problems so that quality assurance of the same could have been attained. Youth Justice has been under the complex influences of various forces working within the society which put extra pressures even on the proceedings of the cases against youth therefore the argument has also been put forward to bring in an approach which requires that those who bring children to the legal proceeding should give it a more holistic and comprehensive view so that children who somehow commit crimes are better represented into the legal system within which they are brought in. This therefore requires that those who conduct their practice into the youth justice must make efforts to bring in more quality in their work. (Geraghty). The historical roots of the practice in youth justice are basically founded on two critical principles of justice and welfare appraoch suggesting a approach which demands that a child must be treated differently than an adult criminal thus ensuring equality into the system based on the pecular nature of the status of children within the society. (Stephenson, Giller and Brown) Youth Justice Practice It is believed that the recent emergence of literature on youth based practice and policy has concentrated on the evidence based effective practice. This evidence based practice has now spread almost all the areas of the youth justice and has been considered as an effective and efficient means of dealing with the issue. However one also need to understand the fact that youth based justice practice and the system largely depend upon the society as it has been argued that the society gets the youth justice system which it deserves as the way a society behaves or reacts to the issue determines the way system and its associated practices are shaped. It is therefore now considered as acceptable that an evidence based practice within the context of social work, in this case - youth justice practice, is the best way to deal with the issues in order to provide a comprehensive articulation and assessment of the practice based work which allow the practioners to continuously improve the quality of their work besides being responsible for what they do. The most important benefit for the use of evidence based practice into the youth justice system is the fact that all the professional practice is not always based on the best evidence and there always a room for the improvement into the practices of the persons engaged into the practice. The evidence based practice have also necessitated the emergence of quality assurance into the youth justice practice also since this allow the practioners to be more accountable to what they do and how they shape their practices within the context of the youth justice. It is argued that the evidence practice within this profession emerged due to the different social as well as political influences which shaped the ultimate reality of the practice in current times since the increasing delicacy of the issue; increasing media exposure and political influence have necessitated that the practice should be based on more realistic assumptions rather than following a set pattern which has been followed since its inception. This shift towards the evidence based practice therefore further allowed the room for brining in quality assurance into the practice. This quality assurance component of the youth justice practice therefore ensure that those who represent children at the court level should be following ethical practices based on the solid foundations and backed up by the good and effective quality assurance system which put a regular check on the practice and provide a comprehensive view of the problem. Quality assurance in Youth Justice Quality assurance system is considered as an "integrated cycle of assessment , planning, implementation and review and is intended to ensure that youth justice agencies are demonstrating , or working towards achieving the recommended standards of practice" (YJB). Analyzing this definition of quality assurance, we come to know that there are four major componenets of the quality assurance system within the context of youth Justice. These components are: 1) Assessment 2) Planning 3) Implementation 4) Review However, it must also be noted that Youth Justice Board has further eloborated following nine core areas of practice and following quality indicators are furnished by the board: 1) Assessement. 2) Individual Needs 3) Communication 4) Service Delivery 5) Transition 6) Training 7) Management 8) Service Development 9) Monitoring and Evaluation These nine core areas of the quality assurance in youth justic practices suggest that the service providers are responsible for their own performance and the improvement of the same is also their responsibility besides giving a due weightage to the professional guidance issued by various bodies. It is believed that one of the most important elements of this quality assurance system is the self assessment. The ability of the practioners to assess the situation on their own, keeping in view all the implemented rules and regulations plus ethical guidelines, form the cornerstone of how a good quality assurance system need to work in a broader context. However it is also argued that self assessment may not render the results until and unless it is not backed up by proper regulatory monitoring as well as self motivation of those who practice it. Thus a good quality assurance system requires that it performs on various counts and provide consistent results. Further, it must also be noted that a quality assurance system must ensure the equality in the practice that is the treatment of the clients seeking youth justice should be free from any bias based on racial as well as linguistic and other grounds which may impair the professional capability of the service providers. Thus in a good quality assurance system, despite integrating different functional areas, the soft areas like equality etc should also be integrated in order to gain a complete and holistic view of the current practices involved in the youth justice besides ensuring that the high ethical standards are being followed in practice. Conclusion Youth Justice is not a very unique issue however lacks the required attention which it should have been given over the period of time. Due to its delicate nature, those who provide the services are often required to follow a quality assurance system so that effective practices. A good quality assurance system requires that it follow certain core practices. The Youth Justice board has outline nine core areas for quality assurance which service providers are required to follow. Further, it has also been argued that a good quality assurance system must ensure the equality is included into the effective practices. Works Cited Board, Youth Justice. "Key elements of effective practice: Quality Assurance Guideness." 2008. Youth Justice Board. 25 July 2008 . Geraghty, Thomas F. "Securing Our Children's Future: New Approaches to Juvenile Justice and Youth Violence." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 94.2 (1994): 481+. Sprott, Jane B. "Understanding Public Views of Youth Crime and the Youth Justice System." Canadian Journal of Criminology 38.3 (1996): 271-290. Stephenson, Martin, Henry Giller and Sally Brown. Effective Practice in Youth Justice. Great Britian: Willan Publishing, 2007. Read More