YOUNG OFFENDERS

Hardback. 'Joy-riders, football hooligans, young tearaways fill the pages of Britain's lurid tabloid world. Most will grow out of it - if we help them to. As this study makes clear, however, so far we've lacked the will, the means and the moral strength to contain Britain's epidemic of teenage crime. Short, sharp shocks haven't worked, and still we don't know what to do. Published after a series of horrific crimes by young people, the book asks searching questions and demands tough answers. It includes interviews with those who administer justice, whether judges or the Chief Inspector of Prisons; with those who implement and monitor it, from the Prison Officers' Association to NACRO; with many informed observers such as Esther Rantzen, John Mortimer, Mary whitehouse, Dr John Rae and Paul Boeteng, MP, and with young offenders themselves. The author's conclusions are about action. Only a tiny minority of young offenders need to be incarcerated. The rest, a resentful underclass have little chance of acquiring the life skills, jobs, education and self-esteem that most of us take for granted - unless we show them how to. And unless we do, the cycle of offending will continue.' With Index. 239pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. F. in F. dw.