Section 53 offenders are young people between the ages of 10 and 17 years of age (inclusive) who commit grave crimes, and are sentenced under Section 53 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. Subsection (1) provides that such children convicted of murder be detained during Her Majesty's Pleasure for an indeterminate period. Subsection (2) provides that such children convicted of other serious crimes, usually involving actual or intended violence and that would attract a sentence of imprisonment of 14 years or more in the ease of an adult, be detained for determinate periods in excess of the normal 12-month custodial limit for that age group. Common examples of this are those sentenced for manslaughter, who may be detained for life, rape, arson and robbery. In December 1991, the author published a summary report for the Prince's Trust entitled 'Waiting for change: The experiences and needs of Section 53 offenders' (Boswell 1991). This was the culmination of a 6-month small-scale study that drew on interviews with 24 of the total population of 615 such offenders. An almost unintended by-product of this survey was the discovery of hard evidence that 50% of the sample had a background of some kind of child abuse (i.e. physical, sexual, ritual, emotional or combinations thereof). There was partial evidence to suggest this was also true in a further 40% of cases, making a potential total of 90% of the Section 53 sample who had been subjected to abuse in their early and/or recent past. In addition, the phenomenon of loss of a significant family member or friend had also appeared with surprising frequency. Bearing in mind the potential implications for criminal justice, crime prevention, educational policies and health policies, the author set up a secondary survey during the period 1993-1994 with the aim of obtaining and analysing hard data about the nature and frequency of child abuse and loss in the backgrounds of a statistically significant number (one third) of Section 53 offenders (Boswell 1995). Prison service files detailing social and psychological backgrounds of these young people were used to extract this information. Where evidence was absent or ambiguous, personal interviews took place in an attempt to establish the relevant background factors. This paper will review the salient findings of each survey in relation to current models of containment and intervention by the child care and prison systems. Alongside this other relevant material, derived from contemporary psychological research into the genesis and treatment of violence, will be discussed. The paper will conclude with an assessment of the position of these serious young offenders along the 'welfare... justice' continuum, and the implications of this for policy-making in the areas of effective prevention and intervention.
