YOUNG AND DANGEROUS. The backgrounds and careers of Section 53 offenders

Hardback. The fact that a small minority of children and young people can be dangerously violent and murderous is an unwelcome and unpalatable truth for those living in a society which contains this phenomenon. Nowhere has this been more fully highlighted than in the publicity surrounding the tragic death of 2yr. old James Bulger at the hands of two 10yr. old children in February 1993, and that of pretty, smiling 11yr. old Mary Bell in 1968, tried and convicted for the manslaughter of two small boys aged 3 and 4. There was an urgent need for an assembly of evidence surrounding the treatment of violent children and adolscents. This book was a contribution to that portfolio. The contents describe and derive from two research studies, conducted by the author, on the topic of Section 53 offenders. These offenders are children and young people between the ages of 10 and 17 inclusive who commit grave crimes (murder, manslaughter, arson, rape) and are sentenced to be detained under Section 53 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, on the grounds that no other available methods of disposal are suitable to reflect the gravity of their crimes. With List of Cases, List of Tables, Bibliog. and Index. 167pp. 8vo. h/back. A review copy with loosely inserted slip. Glazed covers. Nr. F.