Watch Lenny Henry and learn, magistrates told

Magistrates should study the television characters of Lenny Henry to help them understand young black offenders who appear in their courts, a new judicial training manual recommends.

At the same time, magistrates are warned about adopting the "off-putting" interview style of Terry Wogan when they question young people on their crimes.

References to popular culture abound in the Youth Court Bench Book, which will be issued to justices of the peace next month. The telephone directory-sized volume says it is no longer acceptable to plead ignorance to the fads, fashions, drugs and illnesses of the young.

The angst-ridden cry of Harry Enfield's Kevin the Teenager ­ "You don't understand me!" ­ will be finally answered in the courtroom.

A draft copy of the Bench Book, drawn up by the Judicial Studies Board, which is responsible for training judges and magistrates, explains what happens during adolescence. It says: "Adolescents are moody. They can alternate between being unreliable and being dependable and responsible. As they begin to separate psychologically from the family they are likely to oppose family rules, values and expectations. These are often turbulent years."

The "Terry Wogan" style of questioning, which involves asking and answering your own question, is discredited as "redundant" because it does not give the defendant a chance to offer any information to the court. The guide illustrates the "Wogan problem" by posing a question in the style of the celebrity interviewer: "How did your parents feel when they knew you were in trouble with the police?... I am sure they were most unhappy."

Magistrates are also reminded not to base their decisions on first impressions. The guide says: "Young teenage Afro-Caribbean males will, within their culture, acceptably define their masculinity through behaviour which would be defined as exhibitionism within Western [white] culture." To avoid stereotyping young black offenders, magistrates are asked to "reflect upon the way in which Lenny Henry parodies such personalities".

They are also told that just because an Asian teenage girl refuses to look the magistrate in the eye it doesn't mean she has something to hide. It says that direct eye contact with an authority figure can be interpreted as insolence or disrespect in Asian culture.

The hope is that the new approach will draw out monosyllabic juveniles and get them to account for their behaviour. In this way the court will be able to match the punishment to the youth as well as to the crime.

New training, to be introduced in tandem with the Bench Book and which begins after a youth justice conference over the weekend of 7 July, will be a short sharp shock for both the magistrate and the juvenile. But Harry Mawdsley, chairman of the Magistrates' Association, said yesterday that he believed magistrates were ready to engage the young in the courtroom. He said: "This will mean a much more interactive approach so that we are using language in the youth courts which they understand and show that we are knowledgeable about their lifestyles."

The Bench Book, which will be finalised after the conference, is also being backed by the Government, which wants to end the cycle of crime and punishment that persistent young offenders find so difficult to avoid.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, who is responsible for the appointment and discipline of the judiciary, tells the youth magistracy in a draft foreword that for the first time it will have "everything you need to know about youth justice". He says: "It is important that young people and their parents are fully engaged in the court process and that youth courts take place in an environment which is conducive to making the young person aware of the seriousness of their offending and the need to change their behaviour."

Accompanying the Bench Book will be the first complete sentencing guidelines for youth courts, which will attempt to ensure consistency in magistrates courts.