Young People In Conflict Research Articles

Towards a Genealogy of Young People in Conflict with the Law in the Chilean Social Sciences, 1980–2010

This article explores Chilean social science discourses on youth in conflict with the law between 1980 and 2010. Through a scoping review of academic and scientific writings and articles in the social sciences about young people in conflict with the law, the manuscript describes three figures or semantic configurations referring to young people in conflict with the law: (i) anomic youth, (ii) psychosocially harmed youth and (iii) young people at criminal risk. The analysis of these three configurations highlights a shift from a pathological and deficit-based consideration of youth in conflict with the law towards a perspective that seeks to anticipate juvenile crime as a possible future. This forward-looking orientation corresponds to the scarcity of sociological output on youth issues and, in turn, to the rise of psycho-neuro disciplines and technologies as expert discourses on the subject.

Navigating social work practice research challenges: collaboration, participant rights and ethics

In this article, we discuss the challenges in engaging with research participants from marginalised communities, including from some minority communities where there are interconnecting issues of poverty, racism, school exclusion, family breakdown and sometimes youth crime. This is aligned with experiences of developing research partnerships with local services in evaluation work. Two research case studies, from evaluation research with child and family social work and the youth justice system, discuss experiences of researching within inner-city areas, navigating researcher–practitioner relationships and maintaining ethical research standards. In both cases, entering the research field presented challenges related to sensitivities and distress experienced by participants. Our case-study discussions demonstrate how the researchers responded to risk and unwitting involvement with young people in conflict, in prison and experiencing family bereavement. Highlighted is the vital importance of local agencies providing accurate information about the families and young people that the researchers are asked to contact in order to ensure that respect and research ethics are upheld and no trauma is caused. Planning and building trust are key to ensuring that time is given for respectful engagement and that agencies are ready for ongoing support and follow-up as needed. The article will explore how these methodological considerations can be taken forward.

Assessment of the availability, accessibility, and quality of sexual and reproductive health services for young people in conflict affected zones of Cameroon: a mixed method study

IntroductionDespite ongoing programs to improve young people’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (SRHS) in the conflict plagued North West and South West Regions of Cameroon, there is limited evidence-based information evaluating SRHS. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the availability, accessibility, and quality of SRHS provided to young people in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.MethodThis is a cross-sectional mixed-methods sequential explanatory study conducted among healthcare providers and young people between 10 and 24 years in 6 selected urban and rural areas in North West and South West regions. Data was collected between December 2021 and September 2022 using an adopted checklist. A descriptive analysis was conducted for quantitative data. An inductive analysis was conducted for the qualitative data to construct themes. The findings from the quantitative and qualitative responses were triangulated.ResultsThere were 114 participants, 28 healthcare providers and 86 young people. Most provider participants were nurses (n = 18, 64.3%), working in religious facilities (n = 14, 50.0%), with diplomas as state registered nurses (n = 9, 32.1%). Also, more than half of young people (51.2%) were less than 20 years old, while there were more male young people (51.2%) than female young people (48.8%). Most respondents agreed that SRHS services were available, though they think they are not designed for young people and have limited awareness campaigns about the services. Reasons such as limited use of written guidelines, affected quality of SRHS. Participants revealed shyness, resistance from religious groups and families, insecurities from political instability, and inadequate training, among others, as barriers to SRH accessibility.ConclusionThe study shows that SRHS are available but are not specifically designed for young people. Inadequate publicity for these services, coupled with the political crises and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has increased young people’s inaccessibility to SRHS. Young people usually have to finance the cost of most of the SRHS. The quality of service delivery in the facilities is inadequate and must therefore be improved by developing safe, youth-friendly centers staffed with well-trained service providers.

Piloting of a suicide first aid gatekeeper training (online) for children and young people in conflict affected areas in Syria

Suicide among internally displaced people remains an under-researched public health issue especially in conflict affected countries. Given the limited and sometimes inaccessible mental health services, there is a need for scalable evidence-based suicide prevention programmes that could be delivered by trained and supervised non-specialists. The Suicide First Aid Guidelines approach aims to support humanitarian workers who deal directly with children and families with the appropriate knowledge and skills to identify and support those at risk of suicide until they can access further specialized support services or until the crisis passes. This paper presents the findings of an online pilot training of 56 humanitarian workers from different sectors (e.g. Child Protection, Nutrition and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support) in conflict affected areas in Syria. The quantitative and qualitative evaluations were based on pre- and post-training questionnaires and revision journals completed between training sessions. Suggestions and examples provided in the journals and during the trainings were incorporated into the succeeding trainings. This was to contextualize and modify the gatekeeper training to fit the Syrian context and provide adaptations for future research and suicide prevention guidelines. Overall, the evaluation indicated that the pilot training raised awareness and improved participants’ knowledge on how to assist a suicidal person, including warning signs. It also contributed to a positive change in attitude or beliefs towards suicide. Although the pilot training was considered adequate for the Syrian context some improvements were suggested.

‘They call us for everything’: cynicism, rural policing and youth justice

ABSTRACT While researchers have studied police cynicism in urban contexts, few have studied cynicism in relation to rural policing and even less in relation to police responses to young people in these settings. In the current article, we respond by addressing the complex ways cynicism manifests in the rural policing of young people. Based on 104 semi-structured interviews and focus groups (n = 31) with 134 rural police officers in Atlantic Canada, we demonstrate that cynicism manifests in rural policing as role confusion, in relation to recalcitrant young people, the lack of organisational support, inefficacy of youth justice systems, and insufficient support from parents of young people in conflict with the law. Our findings highlight the value of community and organisational support, resources, and trust that are particularly salient in rural settings.

“Boys and girls of God”: the experience of re-socialization of adolescents and young people in conflict with the law in the Santa Filomena community

This research aims to analyze the resocialization process of the second generation of adolescents and young people from the Meninos de Deus project and the contributions of socio-affective relationships in the resignification of individual trajectory in the context of violence in the Santa Filomena community. The study is necessary to understand the importance of strengthening the resocialization processes in an open space, which has the triad of public authorities, civil society and the community as the executing nucleus of socio-educational measures. The Meninos de Deus group was born in 2007 and was born from a pact, among youths in conflict with the law, based on the premise of mutual care, commitment to life and in the re-socializing walk with the community. In this group, the feeling of belonging is opposed to the feeling that young people and adolescents in conflict with the law had with the youth gang or the criminal faction they belonged. The methodology to be used is ethnography, where we will use field research, characterized as an integration of data obtained in the field and by bibliographic reading.

Integration of underage orphans in conflict with the law into society

Among the many acute socio-psychological problems of our time, the integration of orphaned children into society is perhaps the most difficult and painful. This problem is reflected in the pages of the press, in news releases, it is constantly discussed in state and local government bodies at different levels. However, it is precisely orphanhood as a socio-psychological phenomenon that appeared not today, it existed and probably will always exist. The purpose of the study is to analyze the causes of conflict with the law of minor orphans and the possibilities of their integration into society. When working on this article, scientific research methods were used, such as the analysis of relevant scientific literature on the research problem, the sociological method, and the formal-logical method. The article deals with significant problems that prevent the integration of orphans into society, as well as the basics of innovative work with children in orphanages as a factor of their successful integration into society. The authors reveal the main directions of work with young people in conflict with the law, as well as the peculiarities of the formation of negative legal socialization of orphans as the main factor of illegal behavior of boarding school graduates, and substantiate the basic principles of building a model of integration of young people in conflict with the law. The scientific novelty of the work is manifested in the authors’ attempt to substantiate, based on the study of scientific literature, the relationship of social attitudes adopted in Russian society with the most constructive solution to the problem of orphanhood, including the need to assist orphaned children who have come into conflict with the law, primarily related to their psychological support.

Possibilities of using virtual space as a resource for implementation of social initiatives

Background: The publication highlights the features of experimental research on the use of cyberspace as a resource for training future social workers to implement social initiatives on a voluntary basis during the risks associated with the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Possibilities of using virtual space in the social sphere are analyzed. Purpose: To determine the possibilities of using cyberspace for the implementation of social initiatives and training of social workers in the context of the spread of social risks. Materials and Methods: The study used methods of observation and oral questioning of higher education students, as well as content analysis of the activity of users of virtual space. Results: Important components of the professional characteristics of a modern social worker who provides social services in the context of the spread of social risks in modern society are identified. Emphasis is placed on the content characteristics of the created virtual space and the possibilities of its application in the social and educational activities of a social worker with various vulnerable groups (orphans and children deprived of parental care, people with special educational needs, single elderly and senior citizens, also young people in conflict with the law, families in difficult life circumstances, etc.). The need to take into account when creating an adaptive professional-oriented space features of different age and social characteristics of both recipients of social services and their providers significantly increases its socio-cultural capabilities and contributes to the preservation and strengthening (social, psychological and spiritual) components of the health of all actors who interact in this space. Conclusions: Provided are the results of the study of the impact of cyberspace on motivation of the interest of future specialists in the social field to carry out the relevant professional activity, as well as opportunities to ensure the development of their professional competence in this area of professional activity.

Toxic Substances Use and Juvenile Violence in Ivory Coast: The Case of Young Adults and Adolescents in Conflict with the Law, Known as "Microbes"

At the end of a post-electoral crisis in 2011, urban delinquency in Ivory Coast is undergoing a deep change. Young adults and teenagers attack the population according to a triptych that signs a particular modus operandi. An interpretation of this criminality, which is foreign to the taxonomy of delinquency, attempts to situate the place of toxic substances in the criminal actions of those whom the population calls "microbes". This was a cross-cutting study lasting three (03) months. Based on the exhaustive sampling technique, 123 subjects out of 583 young people in conflict with the law enrolled in a resocialisation and reintegration project in 2020, were selected. The respondents were all male, aged 10-25 years old and all out of school. They were all polydrug users, with prevalences of 98.37% for cannabis and 95.12% and 91.87% respectively for psychotropic drugs diverted from their therapeutic use and alcohol. Their criminal trajectory revealed offences of theft in meetings (100%) and assault and battery (84.55%), 15.45% of which led to death. Ritualisation was noted in the preparation of the assaults and in their execution; the first stage being conditioning by the consumption of a "psychoactive cocktail", the second: acting in a gang, and finally the third stage: execution of a scene of murderous violence with knives and unusual weapons 97.28% (machete, axe and human bones). Criminal intentionality presides over the act in the case of "microbes". Drug use only serves to convey a feeling of omnipotence and an increase in cortical excitement. It thus responds to a ritualisation imbued with symbolic signifiers and constitutes a preparatory conditioning for planned predatory violence. The traditional tandem drug and crime should not be the only explanatory approach to all criminal violence among drug users.

Physical education between walls and bars

This article aims to present Physical Education implications for teaching in the context of the socio-educational measure of deprivation of liberty at Fundação Centro de Atendimento Socioeducativo ao Adolescente, an institution responsible for carrying out an internment measure in the State of São Paulo. It uses literature review, observation and interviews based on oral life history. As a result, it was possible to identify approximations and distances between two existing proposals in Physical Education. It urges the need for a dialogue between two state spheres so that Physical Education is thought out in order to meet the specificities of young people in conflict with the law, as well as making the school educational proposal and the inclusion of the theme in the teachers’ training curricula possible and coherent.

Police officers’ awareness of the speech, language and communication needs of young offenders

Around 60% of young people in conflict with the law experience speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). This study investigates Police Scotland officers’ awareness of the SLCN of young offenders, strategies officers use to support SLCN and their interest in further training on SLCN. A majority had worked with young offenders with SLCN and were fairly confident in recognising these needs. The most common support strategy was to involve outside agencies, specifically Appropriate Adults. Increased speech and language therapy services are needed to train Police Officers to recognise and support SLCN without reliance on other agencies.

REFLEXÃO SOBRE A PARTICIPAÇÃO SOCIAL NA RESSOCIALIZAÇÃO DO ADOLESCENTE EM CONFLITO COM A LEI

A realidade brasileira quanto a inserção do adolescente em conflito com a lei não é recente e, o presente estudo volta-se não apenas em procurar dissertar acerca do envolvimento do jovem infrator, mas e principalmente na possibilidade e necessidade da participação social nesse processo de (res)socialização deste ao convívio familiar e da sociedade a qual encontra-se inserido. Iniciou-se o estudo discorrendo quanto a noções acerca do Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente – ECA, a previsão constitucional quanto criança e adolescente como sujeitos de direitos e as garantias jurídicas dispostas na legislação brasileira. Em seguida, buscou-se destacar a Doutrina de Proteção Integral, ou seja, assegurar sua aplicação de forma indistinta e sem qualquer espécie de discriminação ou diferença, garantindo o pleno desenvolvimento daqueles, bem como no que tange ao ato infracional e a aplicação das medidas socioeducativas no processo de reinserção a uma vida normal e digna, observada a dignidade da pessoa humana. Por fim e não menos importante, discorreu-se sobre a participação social na ressocialização do adolescente em conflito com a lei, participação essa imprescindível e fundamental nesse contexto e observância ao verdadeiro exercício de cidadania, seja reduzindo desigualdades ou estabelecendo, mesmo que minimamente um equilíbrio justo e consciente, socialmente falando para as presentes e, principalmente, para as futuras gerações, através de uma gestão pública compartilhada e participativa de políticas públicas a reinserção social do jovem em conflito com a lei.

Youth Justice in the Digital Age: A Case Study of Practitioners’ Perspectives on the Challenges and Opportunities of Social Technology in Their Techno-Habitat in the United Kingdom

This article draws on original, empirical research that focused on the use of an experimental mobile application developed by the authors and used in the domain of youth justice in England. Against a backdrop of the theory of the paradox of technology with ideas of the networked self and child rights, the article explores the use of social technology with vulnerable/marginalised young people. Given the dearth in knowledge and understanding, in this area of social technology and young people in conflict with the law, the article focuses on an important, original and fast-developing issue in contemporary youth justice. Principally, the article explores the experiences and views of practitioners to promote a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges in the adoption of social technology in working with marginalised young people. Practitioner perceptions on the use of social technology in their own practice and its associated risks and benefits are also revealed. Study findings indicate that digital opportunities and challenges are embedded in organisational and cultural structures and practices. The article discusses implications for youth justice and ultimately for young people in conflict with the law who are caught up in the system. The article raises important issues about the likely increasing use of technology as a tool in rehabilitation and desistance; and its key messages will be of considerable interest to practitioners, managers and policy-makers who will have little option, as time goes on, to enter this controversial field.

Interaction between incarcerated adolescents and their grandparents in the processes of living and ageing

Abstract Objective: To describe the interactions between incarcerated adolescents and their grandparents during the processes of living and ageing. Method: An exploratory, descriptive, qualitative study was carried out, based on a semi-structured interview with 11 adolescents aged from 17 to 20 incarcerated in a youth detention center in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The discourse of the adolescents was analyzed based on content themes. Results: Categories that were both intertwined and complete among themselves were constructed: a) grandparents as affective support for incarcerated adolescents and b) relationships of reciprocity and healthy coexistence between the adolescents and their grandparents. Conclusion: The results showed that despite relational conflicts, the participants perceived the role of their grandparents in their lives as beneficial, as they offer a familial reference space, providing shelter and affection against the anxieties of the adolescents and those related to their families. This form of coexistence was a potential part of the development of young people in conflict with the law, and a favorable environment of mutual exchanges and learning, and as figures continuing the transgenerational family culture. Family separation was mentioned as a recurring and underreported process in the lives of adolescents and their grandparents.

Prácticas ejercidas con jóvenes en conflicto con la ley penal anteriores a la Ley Agote

Prácticas ejercidas con jóvenes en conflicto con la ley penal anteriores a la Ley Agote

Non-voting young people in conflict with the political system

ABSTRACTThis article argues that to grasp the reason why so many young people choose not to vote in local elections, we must supplement the many quantitative studies by asking the youth themselves. This study, then, is based on focus group interviews with young people discussing their experience of politics and political communication. In this way the analysis investigates how democracy and politics are essentially contested by young people. Inspired by Niklas Luhmann, the article furthermore argues that it is profitable to understand these many ‘noes’ to voting as a progressive conflict between non-voting young people and the political system.

“El crimen de Brian”. La legitimación de la baja en la edad de imputabilidad en el discurso del diario Clarín

El trabajo analiza la construcción discursiva de los jóvenes en conflicto con la ley penal en la cobertura del diario Clarín en el caso “el crimen de Brian”, que reactualizó el debate público sobre la baja en la edad de imputabilidad. El objetivo es relevar e identificar las modalidades enunciativas y estrategias retóricas privilegiadas mediante las que se elaboran representaciones fundantes de legitimidad acerca de la niñez y la adolescencia en relación con la violencia y el delito. El corpus de trabajo está constituido por noticias policiales publicadas por el diario en su edición digital durante fines de diciembre de 2016, enero y febrero de 2017. El estudio de la construcción del caso como acontecimiento policial –por tanto también político– permite identificar de qué manera la baja de imputabilidad como tópico del discurso aparece legitimado.

Social determinants, which encourage the criminal desistance in young people in conflict with the law

IntroductionPrevious studies about young people in conflict with the law (YPCL) have a tendency to focus on the risk factors that contribute to trigger antisocial criminal behavior. Instead, this study aims to research the social determinants that encourage the criminal desistance: understood as a gradual process taking place in the periods of absence of crime and desire to abandon the criminal activity.ObjectivesFrom a sample that is made up of 100 YPCL, the main objective is to deduce the social determinants, which encourage the criminal desistance in YPCL, it means young people who commit crimes.AimsTo infer the social determinants (circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, including the health system) which foster the desistance in YPCL.MethodsThe results of a sample of 100 YPCL were assessed with three profiles as follows: I: DSM-IV personality disorders (PD T-Scores). II: swap personality syndromes (Q-Factor T-Scores). III. factor T-scores.ResultsThis research shows the prevalence of the following social determinants associated with the desistance: (1) integrated families. (2) Educational and cultural opportunities (3) academic progress. (4) Healthy relationships that support and help. (5) Stable living arrangements (6) social conditions preserved the use of psychoactive substances and alcohol abuse.ConclusionsIt is possible to identify the prevalence of social determinants which encourage the desistance in YPCL. Those allows them to transform their risk path in another that shows a positive development, associated with individual transformations that take them away from the criminal life and reintegrate into the community.

Artful Dodgers: The Role of Unreliable Narrators in the Production of Authorized Histories and Assessments of Young People in Conflict with the Law

ABSTRACTThis article argues that pre-sentence reports for youth courts are co-authored by at least two unreliable narrators: the defendant and the youth justice worker. The production of an objective professional assessment for sentencing purposes is therefore a convenient fiction in which key actors collude. Such reports do not only seek to provide narrative explanations of past actions, but also shape future sentencing decisions and other outcomes that can either be helpful or harmful to service users. Full case files, meanwhile, contain documents that reveal less orderly and more challenging narratives from the margins.

Exploring childhood, criminal responsibility and the evolving capacities of the child: the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales

Currently in England and Wales the law considers that all children below 10 years of age are exempt from criminal liability for their actions as such children are morally not responsible and lacking blameworthiness. This approach to young people in conflict with the law misrepresents the evidence regarding young people who offend and encourages highly contestable judgements about individuality, identity and welfare. I will argue that children have a right to respect for their evolving capacities and that respecting this right would help to redirect the criminal justice system towards a normative framework better equipped to accommodate the realities of childhood and in which the child’s experience of vulnerability and powerlessness is embedded throughout.