Legal Changes in Adolescent Psychiatry

Juvenile crime has increased considerably in the past decade. The Police Federation and the Justices' Clerks' Society blame the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 and want the law changed for several reasons. The British Association of Social Workers, however, disagrees. In view of possible changes in the near future, the development of the 1969 Act is traced from World War II with comments on the social conditions then existing. The results of the legislature are discussed with particular reference to Certificates of Unruliness, accommodation difficulties and the role of psychiatry at the present time.