Youth Justice in Scotland: Fixed in the Past or Fit for the Future?

During any meaningful conversation about youth justice in Scotland it is all but inevitable that The Kilbrandon Report will be mentioned given that it continues to act as a touchstone for practitioners, policymakers, researchers and politicians. As noted by Professor Stewart Asquith in the Preface to the reprinted version of the report, “The Kilbrandon Report was, and still remains, one of the most influential policy statements on how a society should deal with ‘children in trouble’” (Asquith, 1995: vi). The release of this briefing paper falls, by chance, almost exactly half a century on from the presentation to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Scotland of The Kilbrandon Report in April 1964. At such a significant juncture it seems apposite to take stock of the state of youth justice in Scotland.