The high rates of child incarceration that have characterized the youth justice system in England and Wales for almost two decades are frequently attributed to the impact of a punitive turn in the early part of the 1990s. While previous authors have considered the mediating influence of legislative shifts and changing patterns of sentencer decision-making, it has nonetheless been argued that analyses of the mechanisms that link punitivism and youth custody remain underdeveloped. The current article focuses on the role of enforcement as an indicator of changes in youth justice practitioner culture to explore how practice has become less tolerant in the face of a harsher environment towards children in conflict with the law.