The Underlying Needs Influencing Young Women’s Contact with the Youth Justice System: A Rapid Review

IntroductionChildren who have a history of involvement in child protection services (CPS) are over-represented in the youth and adult criminal justice systems. There are significant health and socioeconomic implications for...

INTRODUCTION: Young people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in Aotearoa New Zealand are both primed for, and hindered within the youth justice (YJ) system. This research provides a fresh perspective on how social workers can take a lead role in ensuring young people with FASD receive neurodevelopmentally appropriate interventions both within the YJ system and upon return to their communities.METHODS: A systematic literature review of secondary data was undertaken to explore themes, including the connection between the impacts of FASD and risk of contact with the YJ system; how FASD affects the young person’s ability to navigate the YJ system; best practice recommendations to ensure just treatment for young people in the YJ system; and the potential for social work to take a lead role in improving treatment and outcomes for young people with FASD in the YJ system.FINDINGS: Key findings include the confirmation of the link between young people with FASD and the YJ population; consistent best practice recommendations for treatment and interventions; and a clear positive relationship between the social work mandate and the implementation of the recommended treatment for young people with FASD who have had contact with the YJ system.PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Based on the research findings, an FASD-informed practice framework has been developed as a tool to guide social workers who are working with young people with FASD in the Aotearoa New Zealand YJ system and beyond.

ObjectiveTo examine differences in youth justice (YJ) system contact patterns, early life characteristics, child protection system contact, and adolescent mental health outcomes among young people who have early, late or no contact with the YJ system. ApproachData were from the Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform including children in South Australia born 1991-2002, followed from birth to age 18 (n=249,995). Young people were categorised into three groups: 1) those who had their first YJ supervision before age 14, i.e., those who had ‘early’ contact; 2) those who had their first YJ supervision at age 14 or older, i.e., those who had ‘late’ contact; and 3) those who had no contact with the YJ system by age 18. ResultsOf the 249,995 children born 1991-2002, 4,097 (1.6%) had YJ contact. Of these, 667 (16.3%) had their first YJ supervision early, and 3,430 (83.7%) had their first YJ supervision late. Compared to the late contact group, young people with early contact had more serious YJ contact patterns (e.g., 91% versus 59% ever experienced custodial supervision). Compared to the late contact and no YJ contact groups, the early contact group were: more disadvantaged at birth; had more serious child protection contact by age 10; and a higher proportion had experienced at least one mental health-related hospitalisation from ages 12-18. ConclusionThis analysis demonstrates the complex circumstances that precede and co-occur with YJ involvement. Early life adversity and poor adolescent mental health were more pronounced for young people who had early contact with YJ, compared to those who had late contact. This points to the need for investment in early supports.

Young people who have had contact with the criminal justice system are at increased risk of early death, especially from injuries. However, deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in this population remain poorly described. We aimed to estimate mortality due to NCDs in people with a history of involvement with the youth justice system, compare NCD mortality rates in this population with those in the general population, and characterise demographic and justice-related factors associated with deaths caused by NCDs in people with a history of contact with the youth justice system. In this retrospective, population-based cohort study (the Youth Justice Mortality [YJ-Mort] study), we included all people aged 10-18 years (at baseline) charged with a criminal offence in Queensland, Australia, between June 30, 1993, and July 1, 2014. We probabilistically linked youth justice records with adult correctional records and national death records up to Jan 31, 2017. Indigenous status was ascertained from youth justice and adult correctional records, with individuals identified as Indigenous in either source classified as Indigenous in the final dataset. We estimated crude mortality rates and standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) for comparisons with data from the Australian general population. We identified risk factors for NCD deaths using competing-risks regression. Of 48 670 individuals aged 10-18 years (at baseline) charged with a criminal offence in Queensland, Australia, between June 30, 1993, and July 1, 2014, 11 897 (24·4%) individuals were female, 36 773 (75·6%) were male, and 13 250 (27·2%) were identified as identified as Indigenous. The median age at first contact with the youth justice system was 15 years (IQR 14-16), the median follow-up time was 13·4 years (8·4-18·4), and the median age at the end of the study was 28·6 years (23·6-33·6). Of 1431 deaths, 932 (65·1%) had a known and attributed cause, and 121 (13·0%) of these were caused by an NCD. The crude mortality rate from NCDs was 18·5 (95% CI 15·5-22·1) per 100 000 person-years among individuals with a history of involvement with the youth justice system, which was higher than among the age-matched and sex-matched Australian general population (SMR 1·67 [1·39-1·99]). Two or more admissions to adult custody (compared with none; adjusted sub-distribution hazard ratio 2·09 [1·36-3·22]), and up to 52 weeks in adult custody (compared with none; 1·98 [1·18-3·32]) was associated with NCD death. Young people with a history of contact with the justice system are at increased risk of death from NCDs compared with age-matched and sex-matched peers in the general Australian population. Reducing youth incarceration and providing young people's rights to access clinical, preventive, and restorative services should be a priority. National Health and Medical Research Council.

This article explores some of the methodological, ethical and practical difficulties of researching with young black people and is based on a three-year long research project that was a collaboration between The Children’s Society (a major NGO in England) and the University of Central England in Birmingham. The article uses findings from this research project to examine some broader epistemological issues related to ethnography, research more generally, and young black people’s dealings with the youth and criminal justice systems.

Since the early 2000s, Turkey’s youth justice system has undergone extensive reforms. However, it is centred around high-security remand imprisonment. Based on the research conducted between 2014 and 2015 to comprehend how high-security remand imprisonment has acquired such a central role, this article provides an analysis on the ways in which the system has diverted into a peculiar ‘managerialism’. Certain themes emerged revealing the turn to ‘managerialism’: (1) lack of coordination between different professional units and lack of evidence-based policymaking, (2) prioritization of speed and technology, (3) peripheral role of social work officials and (4) the importance of prisons.

Despite some positive developments within policy and practice, the over-representation of care-experienced children in the youth justice system remains of significant concern globally. Moreover, there is a relative lack of research or policy focusing specifically on the needs of care-experienced girls who become involved in offending behaviour. This article presents novel findings from interviews with 17 girls and young women and eight Youth Offending Team (YOT) staff, highlighting how being in care can affect offending behaviour and how YOTs may provide support to care-experienced girls who have been inadequately supported elsewhere. Reviewing research and practice through a gendered lens helps to demonstrate how and why care-experienced girls may be escalated through justice systems at a greater rate than boys. The provision of gender-specific, trauma-informed interventions by YOTs demonstrates how focusing on care-experienced girls’ well-being first is essential if their involvement in the youth justice system is to be reduced. Nonetheless, while YOTs can plug the gaps by providing valuable support within an unsatisfactory system, youth justice intervention must not be a default option for girls in care who exhibit ‘challenging’ behaviour.

The youth justice system, which relies heavily on verbally mediated processes and spoken interactions, often presents significant challenges for young people with communication disabilities. These barriers impede their ability to participate in justice procedures and access rehabilitation programs designed to reduce recidivism. Communication challenges may particularly impact Indigenous and ethnically minoritized youths’ ability to access support services because they are disproportionately overrepresented in youth justice systems. This article examines the challenges young people with communication disabilities encounter within youth justice systems and advocates for culturally responsive interventions to better support these individuals. We introduce the Hikairo Schema, a framework successfully implemented in New Zealand’s education context, and discuss how its key elements can be adapted to assist youth in the justice system who experience communication difficulties. The delivery of speech-language therapy services in culturally responsive ways is highlighted as an important consideration in designing effective interventions for at-risk youth in the justice system.

Children defined as ‘neurodivergent’ are over-represented in the English and Welsh criminal justice system, and face a number of challenges as they navigate their way through the education and youth justice systems. This paper will empirically examine this neglected area of criminal justice involvement in young lives, and involves an interpretivist investigation of neurodivergent children's experiences of the education and youth justice systems, involving semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 19 children in England who were either in custody or had recently been released from custody. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis.The research findings suggest that both the education and youth justice systems in England and Wales are disabling and criminalising through processes that, often unintentionally; label, stigmatise, isolate, neglect and harm neurodivergent children. Consideration will turn, in the concluding section of the paper, to what a ‘child first’ education and youth justice system would look like for neurodivergent children.

IntroductionDrug-related death is substantially higher in formerly incarcerated adults compared to the general population. Despite this, remarkably little is known about the epidemiology of drug-related death among justice-involved adolescents. A richer understanding of drug-related mortality in justice-involved young people is essential for the development of effective, evidence-based interventions for this vulnerable group.
 Objectives and ApproachIn a whole-population cohort of justice-involved young people in Queensland, Australia, we aimed to: 1) calculate the rate of drug-related death overall, and separately by intent and drug category; and 2) estimate the probability, and identify the predictors of, drug-related death. We probabilistically linked Youth Justice Queensland and National Death Index (NDI) records for every young person who came into contact with the youth justice system in Queensland between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2014 (N=48,963). The NDI provided death data until 31 December 2017. Crude mortality rates (CMR) were calculatedoverall, separately by intent, and by prescribed versus illicit drug cause. Competing risk survival analysis will be conducted.
 ResultsOf the 48,963 individuals, 1452 (3%) died by 31 December 2017. Of these, 204 (14%) deaths were due to drugs, yielding a CMR of 31 (95%CI:27-36) per 100,000 person-years. Most drug-related deaths were recorded as intentional (CMR=28; 95%CI:24-33 per 100,000 person-years) and deaths from prescribed medications were more common than illicit drugs (CMR=17; 95%CI:14-20 and CMR=11; 95%CI:9-14 per 100,000 person-years, respectively).
 Conclusion / ImplicationsRates of drug-related deaths following contact with the youth justice system are disproportionately high and represent a major public health concern. Our findings highlight the importance of initiation of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment upon contact with the youth justice system and continuous engagement with community treatment after discharge from the youth justice system. Evidenced-base prevention strategies and efforts to improve the continuity of care are urgently needed.

Youth justice has become an increasingly important part of the criminal justice system, and has faced a wide range of challenges in the last few years. Practice within the youth justice system has become increasingly professionalized, with important roles being played locally by Youth Offending Teams and custodial establishments, and centrally by the Youth Justice Board (YJB). Key to the professionalisation of the workforce has been the YJB's Effective Practice Strategy and associated HR and Learning strategy that seeks to enable youth offending services and individual practitioners within them to work in ways that are evidence based and informed by the most reliable and up to date research. This book is an amalgamation, significant update and revision of a series of Readers in the key areas of effective practice identified by the YJB. It draws together the best available research in each of eleven key areas of practice, considers the principles of effective practice as they relate to those areas and identifies the challenges for those working in the youth justice system. The book is an essential resource for people working within the youth justice system, those training to work in youth justice, and students taking courses in youth justice as part of criminology or criminal justice degrees. Providing a comprehensive and up-to-date review of research and the implications for practice, it is designed to meet the needs of students taking YJB sponsored courses with the Open University, in particular K208 (the Professional Certificate in Effective Practice) which forms part of a wider Foundation Degree.

This research critically examines principal challenges for children and young people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) within key youth justice domains. Through policy and practice, the discourse of ‘risk’ promotes key tensions between the identification of, and responses to, the needs of children and young people and offending prevention. A growing body of evidence demonstrates the correlation of disproportionate numbers of children and young people with ADHD under the auspices of the youth justice system. This is exacerbated through a lack of early identification, appropriate intervention measures and support, through the various stages of the youth justice system. Drawing on primary research undertaken with youth justice practitioners, associated multi-agency staff and third sector organisations, this research explores the limited understanding and awareness of ADHD. Significantly, it highlights the underlying difficulties and contributory negative influences, which children and young people with this condition face, and especially in the perpetuation of criminal justice contact. Key findings of this qualitative study identify essential training needs for practitioners involved in youth justice and wider services, in order to recognise and respond effectively to this vulnerable group. Additionally, due to multi-faceted, influencing factors constituted in social, educational and criminal justice domains, this group of children and young people are more susceptible to processes of labelling and negative responses within a ‘politics of behaviour’ (Rodger 2012:12).

Young offenders disproportionately present with Developmental Language Disorder and are likely to struggle with the communication demands of the justice system. Professional guidance outlines strategies for facilitating successful communication, but it is unknown to what extent recommendations are substantiated by evidence. This review mapped academic and grey literature regarding the communication requirements, barriers and recommendations for routine youth justice interactions, such as forensic interview and courtroom testimony. Academic papers were identified through searches of five online databases, and OpenGrey, Google Scholar and organizational websites were searched to identify grey literature. 75 of 505 retrieved papers met inclusion criteria. Extracted data were presented regarding a) requirements and barriers a young person would encounter in the youth justice system, b) communication recommendations made for each stage of this journey, and c) type of evidence underlying the outlined findings. Communication barriers included exposure to unfamiliar vocabulary, repairing misunderstandings, constructing narratives and displaying the appropriate attitude. Recommendations were wide-ranging and broadly consistent, though very few had been evaluated for effectiveness. Some papers queried the practicality and effectiveness of recommendations such as rephrasing difficult terminology. A relatively small number of papers considered the views of young offenders or observed real youth justice interactions. Future research should include observational studies of real youth justice interactions to evaluate the effectiveness of widely recommended strategies. Policymakers may wish to consider concerns raised that rephrasing the language used in the youth justice system is not practical or sufficiently effective, and that broader changes to the communication environment are required.

Children defined as ‘neurodiverse’ are over-represented in the English and Welsh criminal justice system, and face a number of challenges as they navigate their way through the education and youth justice systems. This paper will empirically examine this neglected area of criminal justice involvement in young lives. It argues that both the education and youth justice systems in England and Wales are disabling and criminalising through processes that, often unintentionally; label, stigmatise, isolate, neglect and harm neurodiverse children. Consideration will turn, in the concluding section of the paper, to what a ‘child first’ education and youth justice system would look like for neurodiverse children.

Revisiting Remand Imprisonment within Biopolitics: A Study on Turkey’s Juvenile Justice System through Legislative, Judiciary and Executive Powers