Protecting Rights at the Margins of Youth Justice in England and Wales: Intensive Fostering,Custody and Leaving Custody

Abstract

This article attempts to set out a framework for understanding children's rights in the youth justice system. It distinguishes between the child's status and rights as offender, and the child's status and rights as child. It argues that at certain stages — namely, the margins of youth justice (the pre- and post-crime contexts) - the child's primary status is child, and hence his/her rights as a child should have primacy. It applies the framework set out in part one to the post-crime margin, specifically to the use of intensive fostering as part of a community sentence, to children in custody, and to children leaving custody. It considers some of the children's rights issues which arise here.