Policing youth probes beneath the media sensationalism surrounding youth crime in order to evaluate the workings of juvenile justice and the relationship between young people and practitioners in a key era of social change. The work of state representatives - the police, magistrates and probation officers - is mapped alongside discipline within families, neighbourhoods, schools and churches as well as the growing commercial sector of retail and leisure. Youth culture is considered alongside the social and moral regulation of everyday life.

The book offers an important comparison of England and Scotland, uses a wide variety of sources (including criminal statistics, media, film and autobiography), and combines quantitative research methods with textual and spatial analysis.

Individual chapters focus on police officers, the court system, violence, home and community, sexuality, commercial leisure and reform. This significant study will appeal to scholars and students of history, criminology, cultural studies, social policy and sociology.