A Qualitative Study of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Young Offenders in the Secure Estate

The thesis describes a qualitative study of the Duke of Edinburgh‟s Award (DofE) and young offenders in the secure estate. The overall aim of the thesis is to examine young offenders‟ engagement with the DofE, and implications for their experiences while in the secure estate, and subsequently following their release into the community. The research draws on focus groups with young people in young offenders institutions, secure training centres and secure children‟s homes in England and Wales (pre and post implementation of the DoE programme), and interviews with secure estate staff delivering the programme. Interviews were also carried out with DofE management and a sample of Youth Offending Team (YOT) staff. In addition, an online questionnaire was distributed to all YOT managers across England and Wales. The findings of the study indicate that the DofE was popular with participants (both young people and staff) for several reasons. These included the opportunity for young people to engage in activities which were new to them, the hands –on approach to programme delivery, the transference of a range of both technical and more „indeterminate‟ social/individual skills, the perceived status of the qualification, and, related to this, perceived potential to facilitate access to more opportunities for young people, post release. Barriers to implementation were mainly a function of institutional constraints, particularly in relation to risk. Moreover, constraints on the programme delivery, posed by the secure estate, appeared to challenge the Award‟s claim to inclusiveness (that its accessibility to all). A particular challenge for the DofE was maintaining the reputation of the Award (associated with the positive attributes it is claimed to confer upon recipients) while widening access by implementation to young offenders in the secure estate

“Something We Don’t Normally Do”: A Qualitative Study of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in the Secure Estate

The paper is based on findings from a qualitative study of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) in the secure estate, drawing on focus groups with young people in young offenders institutions in England and Wales (pre and post implementation of the DoE programme) and qualitative interviews with staff delivering the Award within the establishments. In exploring participant perceptions of the DofE, the paper focuses on the way in which programme participation provided young people with new experiences, arguing that it offers them some insight into alternative ways of existence, other than crime. At the same time the programme was perceived by young people as instrumental to accessing this ‘existence’ and hence a possible route to realise their ambitions. Young people were acutely aware of having discredited identities as a function of their offending and the Award, by dint of attributes it was perceived to confer upon recipients, was understood as a way of repairing this damage and easing entry into, and acceptance by, mainstream society. Moreover, the skills and experiences imparted by the DofE were perceived as appropriate and useful for acquisition of social skills necessary to make this transition. The authors conclude that DoE programme may usefully form part of a broader offending prevention programme because, based on the findings of this study of young people in custody, it may appeal to young disadvantaged young people, disillusioned by main stream education and who may be on the cusp of offending

Amateur Footage: A Global Study of User-Generated Content

Aim of Research The aim of this research is to provide the first comprehensive report about the use of user-generated content (UGC) among broadcast news channels. Its objectives are to understand how much UGC is used on air and online by these channels, why editors and journalists choose to use it, and under what conditions it is employed. The study intends to provide a holistic understanding of the use of UGC by international broadcast news channels. Methodology This research was carried out in two phases. The first involved an in-depth, quantitative content analysis examining when and how eight international news broadcasters use UGC. For this part of the research we analyzed a total of 1,164 hours of TV output and 2,254 Web pages, coding them according to parameters intended to answer the research questions. The second phase of the research was entirely qualitative. It was designed to build upon the first phase by providing a detailed overview of the professional practices that underpin the collection, verification, and distribution of UGC. To achieve this we conducted 64 interviews with news managers, editors, and journalists from 38 news organizations based in 24 countries around the world. This report brings together both phases of the research to provide a detailed overview of the key findings

"Dangerous conversations”: a case study involving language

Purpose Drawing on the approach of Bourdieu (1977, 1986), and using language as an exemplar, the purpose of this paper is to engage in a “dangerous conversation” to explore how and why issues of diversity were mobilised, ignored and leveraged in one particular service context. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative research exploring the language choices of 25 service users who had been processed through the criminal Justice System in Wales in the last five years. Findings The argument is made that in some service contexts, a habitus obtains that renders reflexivity about diversity issues problematic and predicates against the critical reflection necessary to promote anti-oppressive practice. Research limitations/implications Small sample size, not generalisable. Practical implications The authors intend the paper to encourage greater reflection on instances when diversity issues are raised and to render simplistic any attempt to invalidate claims of discrimination. Social implications Encourage dialogue about claims of discrimination and greater reflection by service providers about the legitimacy of such claims. Originality/value Anti-oppressive theorising has, for the most part, constructed minority group members as passive victims within hierarchical power relationships. While acknowledging how power is unequally distributed, the paper challenges hierarchical models which designate minority group members as bereft of power

Homelessness in Wrexham: Contemporary patterns and profiles of homeless people with complex needs

This study, which was funded jointly by Wrexham Temperance Hall Trust, Wrexham Council Supporting People team and Wrexham and Flintshire Community Safety Office, explores patterns and profiles of homeless people with complex needs in Wrexham, North Wales. The study draws primarily on the perceptions of a sample of providers of a wide range of services catering to the homeless in Wrexham, and on the perceptions of a sample of homeless people (including those who occupy supported accommodation). The aim of the study was to elicit key issues surrounding homelessness in Wrexham from the perspectives of these two groups. The presentation of key issues, in user accounts, is enhanced by the inclusion of five vignettes which tell abbreviated stories of a selection of some of the study’s participants. In addition to service provider and user perceptions, the report presents statistical data from a range of services catering to the needs of homeless people in Wrexham. While these data do not provide a complete picture, nor are they comparable in that different agencies do not collect the same type of data in the same way, they do highlight some important issues for services and their users. Finally, a literature review on homelessness, which focusses primarily upon the UK and on Wales in particular, provides context to some of the report findings

Change Detection Using Synthetic Aperture Sonar: Preliminary Results from the Larvik Trial

International audienceIn April of 2011, FFI led a sea trial near Larvik, Norway on FFIs research vessel the H.U. Sverdrup II with participation by representatives from Canada, United States, and France. One objective of the sea trial was to acquire a data set suitable for examining incoherent and coherent change detection and automated target recognition (ATR) algorithms applied to Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) imagery. The end goal is to produce an automated tool for detecting recently placed objects on the seafloor. To test these algorithms two areas were chosen, one with a comparatively benign seafloor and one with a boulder strewn complex seafloor. Each area was surveyed before and after deployment of objects. The survey time intervals varied from two days to eight days. In this paper we present the trial and show examples of SAS images and change detection of the images

A Literature Review of Transgender People in Prison: An ‘invisible’ population in England and Wales

The last few decades have witnessed a growth in advocacy for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people, and that this activism for equality is now increasingly visible within the Criminal Justice System.1 The Ministry of Justice report The Care and Management of Transsexual Prisoners PSI 07/2011 provides guidelines about the duties and responsibilities that prisons must comply with in ensuring that all transsexual people are treated fairly and in accordance with the law. However, two high profile cases highlighted issues of inequality for transgender people in the secure estate. In late 2015, Vikki Thompson and Joanne Latham, two transgender women placed in male prisons in England, committed suicide in their prison cells within weeks of each other. While it is understood that Joanne Latham had not requested a transfer to a women’s prison, it is reported that Vikki Thompson said she would kill herself if placed in a male prison.2 Following their deaths, it was announced that a review into the care and management of transgender people in prisons would be undertaken in light of a number of concerns that the current system does not adequately address their specific needs. In addition, the Minister for Women, Equalities and Family Justice, Caroline Dinenage indicated that the review extend to transgender people being managed in the community.3 The review was published in November 2016 that aimed to ensure that the care and management of transgender people in prison was ‘fit for purpose and provides an appropriate balance between the needs of the individual and the responsibility to manage risk and safeguard the wellbeing of all prisoners’.4 According to Caroline Dinenage, there are approximately 80 transgender people in prison in England and Wales and although the exact number is unknown, she estimates that the population is increasing. Referring to prisons in the USA, Simopoulos and Khin Khin5 argue that the true estimate of transgender people may be unknown because people in prison are reluctant to disclose their gender identity for fear of transphobia and abuse. However, the recently published review indicated that there will be a data collection exercise across the prison estate (that has already been commissioned) and there will be a new equality information form that among other equality questions, will be a question on gender identity.6 The experience of transgender people in prison is an under-researched area generally but particularly in the UK. The majority of research about transgender people who offend has been undertaken in the USA. This is despite existing research (discussed in this literature review) indicating that transgender people in prison are significantly more likely to experience more problems than other prison populations

Wake up Call: Achieving Compliance with Youth Justice Orders'

Community disposals, which are privileged over custody as a response to young offenders, incorporate both punitive and rehabilitative elements in order to punish, deter and rehabilitate. Failure to comply with them has serious implications for young people, in both the short and longer term. In the literature a clear distinction is made between short term formal compliance with requirements of community orders, and more substantive (less measurable) engagement with the spirit of the endeavour to help young people turn away from crime. The article draws on a small qualitative study of young people in receipt of community orders and YOT workers, to explore aspects of supervision of young people in receipt of community disposals. In particular it focuses on ways in which YOT workers support young people to achieve compliance, how this support is received by young people and the implications for their longer term outcomes. The article suggests that while driven by an imperative to avoid breach among young people, levels and type of support provided may not necessarily enable young people to realize the longer term objective of desistance from crime

Rethinking Preventing Homelessness amongst Prison Leavers

The Wales (Housing) Act 2015 introduced a preventative approach to addressing homelessness that impacted on prison leavers in Wales. Since the same changes will take effect in England from October 2018, this paper provides early insight into how new preventative duties have been implemented in Wales. Drawing on interviews with 114 stakeholders and 75 prison leavers, we report that the promise associated with a preventative agenda is presently not fully realised. We contend that resettlement activity might be improved if it was better incentivised and facilitated inside the prison wall. However, we also suggest the time has come for more radical options to be pursued to address homelessness amongst prison leavers. We argue against short prison sentences, which are so often causative of homelessness, and for providers of probation services to be better incentivised and resourced to take a more active role in meeting accommodation needs