Parent Blame and Youth Crime
The youth ‘justice’ system is in urgent need of radical reform and there is a great deal in the Ministry of Justice’s new White Paper on ‘Youth Crime’[1] that is positive. It aims (among other things) to tackle the ‘upstream causes of crime’ – of young people experiencing poverty and disadvantage, of unmet needs, of exclusions from school and of exposure to violence or exploitation (para 1.31).
Positive too, is its reference to: the importance of ‘family stability, community support and a children’s social care system that protects and supports the most vulnerable’ (para 2.7.); as well as its acknowledgment that ‘reducing child poverty is central to creating stability for families and strengthening protective foundations‘ (para 2.8); and its acknowledgment that ‘children who are care experienced continue to be significantly overrepresented in the youth justice system’ (para 2.11) – a problem compounded by ‘multiple placement breakdowns and disrupted education’ leaving them with heightened ‘vulnerability to exploitation and criminalisation’ (para 2.11).
The Minister, in his letter to the Justice Select Committee[2] stressed that the White Paper had emerged as a result of ‘extensive engagement with practitioners, local authorities, inspectorates, voluntary sector partners and devolved governments, and is grounded in evidence of what works to prevent offending and reoffending’.
One of the headline proposals is to ‘strengthen parenting orders, so there are real consequences for parents and carers who wilfully fail to support efforts to address their children’s behaviour’.[3] This was flagged up at the very beginning of the Press Release accompanying the White Paper as ‘Parents and carers to face tougher accountability when children offend’ and has been picked up as a key aspect of the reforms by many influential commentators.[4] It would be good to know what the research evidence is, on which this particular proposal is ‘grounded’. It does not appear to be a recommendation of the Independent Evaluation[5] that preceded the White Paper and there must be a real fear that this will become yet another ‘parent blaming’/parent traumatising’ provision:[6] a fear that when the important and positive reforms in the White Paper are watered down or ditched, that only the hard core ‘parent blame’ message will remain.
A key point of departure for non-experts who wish to get to grips with this topic, must be Carlene Firmin’s ‘Contextual Safeguarding’ research– not least her excellent Ted Talk –accessible by clicking here.
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[1] Ministry of justice ‘Cutting Youth Crime. Changing Young Lives. The youth justice system reform and delivery plan’ CP 1585 (MoJ 2026).
[2] Jake Richards MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice letter to the Chair of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, 18 May 2026.
[3] Executive Summary xi page 9 – and capitalised in the original.
[4] See for example, B Morton ‘Parents could face bigger fines for child’s crimes under youth justice shake-up’ BBC 18 May 2026; Sky News ‘Parents could face prison for children’s crimes under justice reforms’ 18 My 2026; and the Local Government Lawyer ‘Parents and carers to face greater responsibility for children who commit crime or cause anti-social behaviour, Government announces’ LGL 18 May 2026.
[5] R Turner, T Shei et al ‘Turnaround Programme – Independent process and implementation evaluation. Final Report’ Ministry of Justice 2026.
[6] See for example, L Clements and A L Aiello Understanding Parent Blame Institutional Failure and Complex Trauma (Policy Press 2025) and L Clements and A L Aiello Systems Generated Trauma (Cerebra 2025).
Posted 20 May 2026.