Over the past 10 years, Britain has copied many ideas from the United States about how to deal with young offenders - long batons, pepper spray, boot camps and the like. In the first of a three-part series on Channel 4, In Search of Law and Order: the Limits of Justice, award-winning film-maker Roger Graef looks at less punitive methods which have been used successfully in a battle-scarred suburb of Boston.
These include a community academy and a mentoring system by former gang members which has helped to halt juvenile homicide in the area.
The series is the result of a five-year search to chronicle the best practice in administering youth justice from around the world.
Graef says “Many of the ideas put forward in the programmes could directly influence British policy. Now at last there is an approach to youth justice which does not just leave it to the cops, courts and prisons but is dynamic, imaginative and effective.”
In Search of Law and Order
Channel 4
Sundays from February 7
9.00-10.00pm
