Race, Recognition and Retribution in Contemporary Youth Justice: The Intractability Malleability Thesis - Hardcover

Esmorie Miller's research historicizes the role of race, racism, and racialization in contemporary youth justice (YJ). Where race in contemporary youth justice is concerned, specifically with the amplification of punishment, her research explores realities beyond crime and punishment; it explores punitive outcomes apparent in contemporary YJ, for racialized youth, as continuities of the historic exclusion of racialized peoples from the benefits of modern, universal rights. Retributive justice has, thus far, decoupled racialized youth's contemporary concerns from this relevant history. A contemporary example of this is the institutional policies and practices around urban youth gangs, in England and Canada. Her research observes that, in both these contexts, race remains invisible in historic narratives on early modern youth penal reform, and thereby in the statutory approaches to gangs. Yet, race is an important part of these histories. Esmorie Miller is a lecturer in Criminology at London South Bank University.