After a year of frenetic activity New Labour's Crime and Disorder Act slipped quietly into the statute book on the last day before parliament's summer recess in 1998. Heralded as a radical shake up of criminal justice and youth justice, the major provisions of the Act are examined in this article and its likely impact on the treatment of young people is critically assessed. It does so by tracing how far the rhetoric of crime prevention represents a radical new departure or a continuation of the former government's commitment to penal populism. By unearthing the key foundational elements in Labour's agenda—authoritarianism, communitarianism, remoralization, managerialism—the article notes the significant presences and absences that are likely to be witnessed in youth justice in England and Wales by the turn of the century.
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