A new study into the practical application of the recently revised Crown Prosecution Service Code, which includes maturity as part of the ‘public interest test,’ recommends that training should be made available to Crown Prosecutors, the Police and defence lawyers

Prosecuting Young Adults: The potential for taking account of maturity at the charge and prosecution stage of the criminal justice system, a report the Criminal Justice Alliance for the T2A Alliance, looked at implementation of the new provisions to take the maturity of an individual into account. It found significant levels of expertise within the CPS in working with questions around the concept of maturity, though with scope to strengthen the consistency and accuracy of its application.

Recommendations of the report include the development of inter-agency protocols for gathering and sharing information; strengthening and extending the use of Conditional Caution for young adults and exploring the potential for problem-solving approaches in Courts, where maturity has been identified at the prosecution stage.

You can read the report in full here, and learn more about the Criminal Justice Alliance here.