To What Extent Has Muncie’s ‘punitive Turn’ Become a Global Trend in International Youth Justice?

Introduction Youth justice is still a fairly new aspect of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and the rest of the world. It was established on the premise that children and adults should be dealt with differently and separately in the criminal justice process, and since then a welfare model of youth justice has typically prevailed on an international level, with an emphasis upon the individual‟s needs. However, Muncie (2008) argues that this is no longer the case. He believes that youth justice is currently undergoing a „punitive turn‟, which has a much heavier focus upon the punishment of the offender and has moved away from the previously employed welfare initiatives. This article seeks to explore the extent of this „punitive turn‟ within youth justice. To achieve this, an adaptation of John Muncie‟s analytical framework of globalisation and convergence shall be employed, as well as his framework for cultural divergence. To explore just how far there is global convergence within youth justice policy in an international forum, this article will explore the issues of adulteration within youth justice, penal expansionism, and the dwindling use of welfare-based approaches of disposal for young offenders. Following each segment, the arguments for socio-political and cultural divergence will be