ABSTRACT

Reflecting an international shift from punitive to more rehabilitative responses to youth offending, many Australian youth justice systems are undergoing significant revision and reform. The urgency of these changes are intensified by longstanding inequities pertaining to the gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and documented violations of human rights within Australian youth detention centres. As state and territory jurisdictions strive towards more child-centred practices, music programmes have been seen to provide transformative experiences for incarcerated young people through opportunities to express themselves and form positive relationships with others. In considering the potentials of music programmes to contribute towards such a child-centred youth justice ‘solution’, this article reports a poststructural policy analysis of Australian youth justice policy texts that produce child-centredness in particular ways. Music programmes are thus positioned as inherently political endeavours that hold potential to reinforce or disrupt policy problems, with implications for equity and justice.

摘要

许多澳大利亚青少年司法系统正在经历重大修订和改革，这反映了国际上对青少年犯罪从惩罚性措施转向更具康复性的应对措施的转变。由于土著和托雷斯海峡岛民青年比例过高而长期存在的不平等现象以及澳大利亚青年拘留中心内有记录的侵犯人权行为，加剧了这些变革的紧迫性。随着州和领地司法管辖区努力采取更多以儿童为中心的做法，音乐节目被认为可以通过表达自己并与他人建立积极关系的机会为被监禁的年轻人提供变革性的体验。在考虑音乐节目为这种以儿童为中心的青少年正义“解决方案”做出贡献的潜力时，以特定方式产生以儿童为中心的观念。因此，音乐节目被定位为本质上的政治活动，有可能强化或破坏政策问题，并对公平和正义产生影响。