Secure accommodation continues to be a controversial facility for children in the care and criminal justice systems. Children are placed in secure accommodation for a wide range of reasons, and include those who have run away from home or care as well as those who have committed serious crimes. Teresa O'Neill argues that the ideological confusion between welfare and justice leads to contradictions in policy and practice. She suggests that the fact that most of the boys - who form the majority of children in secure accommodation - are admitted through the criminal justice system while most of...