Youth Justice Practitioners Research Articles

The Trouble with Girls Today: Professional Perspectives on Young Women’s Offending

Drawing on recent empirical research, this article discusses youth justice professionals’ beliefs about the causes of young women’s offending, and examines whether ‘moral panics’ proclaiming that we are witnessing an explosion in female youth crime and disorder are reflected in contemporary youth justice discourse. I found disturbing evidence that girls continue to be drawn into the youth justice system for welfare reasons — as a result of the criminalization of domestic disputes or because of concerns about their sexual vulnerability. The widespread cultural belief that girls are getting worse received some support amongst youth justice practitioners and managers, although many professionals expressed confusion as to whether female youthful behaviour has deteriorated or whether girls are subject to more intensive and formalized methods of governance than hitherto. The implications of these findings for the criminalization of girls are discussed.

Just deserts? Developing practice in youth justice

AbstractThis paper considers the issues involved in developing a programme for youth justice practitioners. Contemporary youth justice practice occurs in an increasingly managerialist and punitive context raising questions about how best to develop effective practitioners. It is argued that youth justice practice involves a recurring challenge of meeting situations of high complexity that must be dealt with on a case‐by‐case basis, guided by a clear understanding of how offending behaviour is constituted. The Professional Certificate in Effective Practice is reviewed and it is argued that education must emphasize reflective understanding. A critique of competency‐based education in relation to the Diploma in Probation Studies is also presented arguing that such an approach renders invisible important aspects of practice. Recommendations are made for a curriculum for a youth justice programme which stresses humanism, reflective understanding of context and history, criminology, sociology and psychology, social exclusion, social control, risk, victimology and comparative youth justice.

Questioning the `Evidence' of Risk that Underpins Evidence-led Youth Justice Interventions

In this article, I evaluate the Risk Factor Prevention Paradigm (RFPP) as employed in risk-focused research and risk assessment in the Youth Justice System in England and Wales and elsewhere. This paradigm has been criticized as theoretically and methodologically flawed, static, limited in scope and subject to political manipulation. Criticisms are explicated and evaluated, then counter-balanced with discussions of the methodological robustness and empirical successes of the paradigm. I conclude by recommending that quantitative risk-focused research is supplemented with routine qualitative consultation of neglected stakeholders (youth justice practitioners, young people) and that evidence of risk is interpreted, utilized and disseminated in a more valid, realistic manner.