youth justice in the context of the UNCRC’s guidelines on respecting the rights of the child
This first piece of individual written work will require you to consider approaches to youth justice in the context of the UNCRCs guidelines on respecting the rights of the child. You will be provided with key readings, and asked to supplement this material with further independent reading from the module and your own research, directed by your interests in the topic.
The first part of your paper should aim to answer the following questions:
What current policy and legislation informs how youth justice is carried out?
How does the age of criminal responsibility relate to children’s rights, and how might a country’s established age of criminal responsibility reflect cultural beliefs about childhood?
How does the UNCRC inform and support justice policy and practice? Or how is it violated?
The second part of your paper should provide a critical summary and discussion of current research related to a chosen subtopic (including at least 3 peer reviewed sources). Example subtopics include: mental health, LGBT youth, learning disabilities, gender, substance misuse.
The learning outcomes for this assessment are:
Specialist understanding and critical awareness of contemporary policy developments and professional practice in a specific area of childhood and youth policy in a national or international frame of reference.
Originality in the application of knowledge taken from cognate disciplines to critically analyse a specific area of policy development and professional practice.
Conceptual understanding that enables the critical evaluation of current research and advanced scholarship and the evaluation of methodologies and development of critiques of them sufficient to sustain a critical account.
Capability in making sound judgements and communicating conclusions about issues characterised by complexity and uncertainty.
Demonstrate the capacity for self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and for acting autonomously in planning and implementing a focused account that meets the previous requirements.