The British 1998 Crime and Disorder Act: A 'Restorative' Response to Youth Offending?

This article aims to examine the extent to which the British 1998 Crime and Disorder Act (CDA) has introduced elements of a restorative approach as part of a mainstream response to youth offending. Moreover, it attempts to examine whether, by introducing restorative justice elements, young offenders are being held more or less accountable for their actions. The CDA generally appears to be one of the most liberal pieces of legislation ever passed. Specifically, some of its provisions such as reprimands and warnings, restorative conferencing, or reparation orders, are thought to add a restorative element to the youth justice system, although this is applicable to some special cases, and under certain circumstances. Thus, it could be said that the Act introduces restorative elements but to a very small extent to be perceived as the mainstream response to youth offending. Ironically, although not discussed at length, similar provisions have been incorporated into the Youth Criminal Justice Act in Canada, but given its relative infancy it is not possible to offer any concrete observations as to its relative effectiveness. Many provisions of the Act, such as detention and training order, are rather punitive. In many respects too it did nothing but change the names of the old, punitive, criminal care order to supervision order, and the old intermediate condition to action plan order.