Reading and writing youth justice in Italy and (England and) Wales

This article draws on an ongoing comparative study of youth justice in Italy and (England and) Wales to pose two questions. First, to what extent does the construction and use of social reports in the youth justice systems in the two jurisdictions conform to projected ‘new’ transnational trends in neo-liberal penal discourses? Second, in so far as differences in the influence of these discourses can be identified, how are they to be explained and interpreted? Particular attention is focused on differences in the institutional and cultural relations between those who write and those who use and interpret such reports. But these relations are examined in the light of broader differences in political cultures which, by defining the ‘problem’ of youth and crime in different ways, frame differently the decision-making surrounding social reports in the two jurisdictions. The study is based on empirical data (semi-structured interviews, case-file analysis) primarily drawn from Emilia Romagna in Italy and from South Wales