The life course of delinquency: reflections on the meaning of trajectories, transitions and turning points in youth justice

ABSTRACT This article challenges contemporary analyses of the nature of youth justice in England and Wales as partial and restricted in theoretical and conceptual terms. A life course perspective is adopted to examine the trajectory of youth justice as a dynamic artefact, constantly shaped by recurring, reconstructed and r/evolving contextual, thematic and stakeholder influences. A critical and thematic review of academic, government, policy and media literature using social construction as its analytical frame of reference in turn opens up the theoretical space to articulate an internally-coherent and nuanced framework for understanding the nature and development of youth justice past, present and future.