'Let no one despise your youth’: a sociological approach to youth justice under New Labour 1997-2010

The youth justice system in England and Wales has been subjected to numerous transformations since 1997 under successive New Labour governments. Most approaches to the field during the period under review address the fine details of what is a politically and organisationally modernised domain. Even though we step inside the system to observe some of its transformative developments, we begin at the other end which enables a more rounded sociological approach to youth justice to emerge which facilitates the production of a more detailed evaluation and understanding of the field. This other end approach draws upon two main bodies of sociological theory, namely Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, which are put to work to enrich the analysis. It should be made clear that our main concern is not to produce a blueprint for a new youth justice system, but rather to draw attention to some exploratory and explanatory tools to evaluate the period under New Labour from 1997 to 2010.