Racially motivated offending and targeted interventions

This research aimed to identify the prevalence of racially motivated offending among young people in England and Wales and to shed light on the response to racially motivated offending within the youth justice system

Professional Perspectives of Youth Justice Policy Implementation:Contextual and Coalface Challenges

© 2020 The Authors. The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice published by Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd This article offers a multilayered analysis of the subjective perspectives and experiences of key youth justice stakeholders; exploring the inherent dynamism, contradiction, non-linearity, and contentiousness of youth justice policy implementation. We interrogate how professionals make sense and meaning of policy in the real world and how professional perspectives drive and shape their contributions to policy implementation nationally and locally. Contemporaneously, these analyses enable us to critically examine the caricatures, stereotypes, and assumptions that can (mis)inform common constructions, representations, and understandings of youth justice policy trajectories, including those relating to contextual stability, conceptual clarity, robust evidence bases, and purported foundations in stakeholder consensus

Where has all the youth crime gone? youth justice in an age of austerity

Youth justice under the Coalition government in England and Wales has been characterised by considerable gains — falling youth crime, increased diversion and substantial reductions in child imprisonment — that would generally be associated with a progressive agenda. Focusing on youth justice policy in England and Wales, this article suggests that the tensions implicit in a government of the new right delivering outcomes that demonstrate an increased tolerance to children who offend can be explained by the logic of austerity. That same logic brings with it other policy measures that are potentially less compatible with children's well-being

‘There’s Not Going to Be a Single Solution’: The Role of Resettlement Consortia in Improving the Resettlement Outcomes of Young People Leaving Custody

As part of the government’s Transforming Youth Custody programme, in 2014 the Youth Justice Board (YJB) established four new resettlement consortia in four areas in England. This article presents the findings from a process evaluation of the new consortia, paying particular attention to the enablers and/or barriers that affected the implementation of an enhanced resettlement offer. We found that the consortia did appear to improve partnership working and collaboration between key agencies. Yet the delivery of an enhanced offer was often hampered by the geographically dispersed nature of the consortia, along with problems accessing suitable accommodation upon release

Promoting shifts in personal narratives and providing structures of support : transitions of incarcerated children in England and Wales

Recidivism rates for children leaving custody in England and Wales have remained stubbornly high, despite intense policy interest and some promising short-term initiatives. In this chapter, it is argued that the major challenge to improved outcomes has been the widespread failure of service providers to adopt lessons from research. This failure, we maintain, has been due to the lack of a conceptual understanding of how resettlement intervention effects positive change in children, leading to confusion as to service aims and what good practice looks like. Based on the existing knowledge base, from a six-year study titled, Beyond Youth Custody, it was concluded that effective resettlement should be reconceptualized as personal and practical support, that facilitates a shift in the child’s personal narrative from pro-criminal to pro-social. Five characteristics for practice necessary to promote this shift are identified, which are compared to the Taxonomy for Transition Programming 2.0

Language difficulties and criminal justice: the need for earlier identification

Background: At least 60% of young people in the UK who are accessing youth justice services present with speech, language and communication difficulties which are largely unrecognized. The contributing reasons for this are discussed, suggesting that early language difficulty is a risk factor for other problems such as literacy difficulties and educational failure that may increasingly put the young person at risk of offending. Opportunities for identification and remediation of language difficulties before young people reach youth justice services are also outlined. Aims: To examine language skills in a sample of children in a secure children's home aged 11–17 years. Methods & Procedures: A sample of 118 males were routinely assessed on four Comprehensive Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) subtests and the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS). Outcomes & Results: Around 30% of the participants presented with language difficulties scoring 1.5 SD (standard deviation) below the mean on the assessments. Despite them entering the home because their vulnerability was recognized, only two participants had a previous record of language difficulties. A total of 20% of the participants had a diagnosis of mental illness, 50% had a history of drug abuse and 31% had looked‐after status prior to entry to the home. Conclusions & implications: Children experiencing educational or emotional difficulties need to be routinely assessed for speech, language and communication difficulties. More population‐based approaches to supporting the development of oral language skills in children and young people are also supported

The punitive transition in youth justice: reconstructing the child as offender

The transition from ‘child’ to ‘offender’ status can be fasttracked when offending is formally recognised through formal disposal, with children treated increasing punitively as they progress through the Youth Justice System. The status and ‘offenderising’ transitions of children who offend is socio-historically contingent, not only on their behaviour, but on political, socio-economic, societal, systemic and demography. We support this perspective through a periodised re-examination of four socio-historical trajectories in the construction of the ‘youth offender’: conflict, ambivalence and bifurcation (1908-1979); depenalising diversion and back to justice (1980-1992), fast-tracking the child to offender transition (1993-2007) and tentative depenalisation (2008 to present)

The experience of young people transitioning between youth offending services to probation services

Jayne Price, The experience of young people transitioning between youth offending services to probation services, Probation Journal (Vol. 67 Iss. 3) pp. 246-263. Copyright © 2020 (SAGE). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.This article explores the experience of transitioning from youth offending services to adult probation services upon turning age 18 years whilst incarcerated. The significant differences in the level of provision has been described as a ‘cliff-edge’ (Transition to Adulthood Alliance, 2009). Drawing upon interviews with young people held in institutions, stakeholders and survey data from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), it is argued that the drop in support is exacerbated by poor communication between institutions and services which has harmful implications for young people during this crucial period of developmental maturity and beyond custody

Sport in a youth prison: male young offenders' experiences of a sporting intervention

The numbers of children under the age of 18 being incarcerated in England and Wales has decreased of late, with official figures indicating that the current population of just over 1500 has halved during the last decade. But levels of reoffending among children released from prison remain the highest, with three out of four young people being reconvicted within one year of release from juvenile custody. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of community-based sports projects target children and young people, when it comes to incarcerated populations, sporting initiatives are less prevalent. Where sport has become well established as a useful social cohesion/inclusion strategy in community settings, some of these approaches have been translated into custodial settings. Resulting research has often proclaimed sporting pursuits as a modern-day panacea in terms of their social, psychological and emotional benefits, yet few studies have explored the nuances of sports-based interventions within secure settings. This paper comprises a small-scale, qualitative study of one such intervention in a Young Offender Institution in the South of England. Placing respondent accounts at the centre of the analysis, the paper sheds light on the practicalities of programme delivery by uncovering the motivating factors behind participant engagement whilst exploring broader notions of personal development. The paper concludes by highlighting that sport/physical activity can confer significant psychosocial benefits and promote the rehabilitation of young people leaving custody, particularly when integrated into wider programmes of support and provision