The University of Portsmouth said if youths were forced to wear hi-vis jackets while doing community service fewer would turn up to avoid the humiliation.

If they fail to attend they'll break the terms of their court-set community orders and end up in prison.

Researchers say it could also attract vigilante-style attacks on the offenders and their supervisors.

The study is based on a survey of 47 young offenders and 12 supervisors in Hampshire.

Nicholas Pamment, of the university's Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, suggests it would be a backwards step.

'Branding offenders is designed to make them feel shame and bring condemnation on them but it risks creating a class of outcasts,' he said.

'Fewer youths will turn up for community service to avoid the humiliation and that may well result in more of them being locked up.

'Community service is the unsung success story in criminal justice, with re-conviction rates well below those for prison and other punishments. If such public naming and shaming is made policy there is a high chance that all that good work will be undone.'

Bright orange jackets with Community Payback written on the front and back have been compulsory for adult offenders doing community service since last December.

The Youth Justice Board has no plans to introduce such vests for 10 to 17-year-old offenders. But the idea has been mooted as part of the government's Justice Seen, Justice Done campaign.

The university said during its research young offenders complained that rocks would be thrown at them.

Another said: 'None of us would turn up.'

But Jeff Harris, placement manager for unpaid work in Portsmouth, said: 'Hi-vis jackets have been worn by offenders in Portsmouth for six years and we've never had any problems.

'We have 30 groups a week and we haven't had any abuse being hurled or people not turning up because they're embarrassed.

'And if the Community Payback jackets were given to youths I can't see it being a problem for them either.'


PROS AND CONS OF POLICY

Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced in December that offenders doing work in the community would wear the Community Payback orange jackets as 'vests of shame'.

But later that month, Leicester & Rutland Probation Service stopped putting offenders in the jackets after missiles were thrown at offenders, who were often verbally abused.

In May, a 19-year-old from Norfolk, who refused to wear a vest because it would cause him 'humiliation and embarrassment', was backed by a judge who said he had a 'reasonable excuse' for not wearing the jacket.

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