A quiet revolution: What worked to create a ‘Whole System Approach’ to juvenile justice in Scotland

This chapter examines developments in the political and policy narrative around juvenile justice in Scotland. For decades, Scotland’s Children’s Hearing System was predicated on a welfare-based philosophy proposed by the Kilbrandon Committee in the 1960s. A brief punitive phase driven by a nascent government influenced by loud populist rhetoric around being ‘tough on crime’ in the early 2000s showed that more intensive system intervention failed to drive down youth crime. Evidence from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime emphasised the need to re-embrace the Kilbrandon philosophy (focusing on needs rather than deeds), that diversion from formal measures was critical to securing more positive outcomes for young people, and that sustained system contact risked exacerbating people’s longer-term criminal careers. In response, a much quieter period of Scottish policy-making created the conditions for child-centred policies to flourish and a new Whole Systems Approach focused on multi-agency support for children and families, early and effective intervention, and diversion to develop. We argue that the lessons from this Scottish case study should give confidence to those in other jurisdictions to focus less on punishment and more on needs-based diversionary strategies; but that robust research evidence is necessary to avoid the unintended negative consequences of political interference.