Rational choice and responsibilisation in youth justice in Scotland: whose evidence matters in evidence-based policy?

Rational choice and responsibilisation of young offenders are concepts increasingly informing youth justice policy in Scotland, yet there is evidence from both academics and young offenders that such approaches are ineffective. This article explores the views of young people in care and contrasts their evidence with that from Rational Choice Theory, elements of which are increasingly influencing youth justice policy. Government policy now focuses not on desistance but on the containment and behaviour modification of young offenders, strategies which no longer deliver justice but anticipate and modify so-called ‘rational’ thinking amongst young people.