What is it about?
Young people involved in prolific and persistent offending very often have complex needs. Their challenging behaviour frequently manifests difficult circumstances, transitions and/or experiences going on in their lives. Understanding the social ecology of young people's offending behaviour can help youth justice workers more effectively engage young people in the context of their relationships with others, and help support young people's positive development. This paper explains how a social-ecological approach to understanding young people's offending can thus make youth justice intervention more effective.
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Why is it important?
The decline in numbers of young people in the formal youth justice system has revealed a 'complex core' of young people seen as difficult to engage and difficult to work with to reduce their offending. This situation requires new ways of thinking about effective practice with young people. While 'desistance-focused' approaches are increasingly directing attention to the social context of offending, we argue that these retain a focus on the young person as an 'offender' which can reinforce a negative identity and militate against positive identity development. A social-ecological approach offers a more positive framing of the young person, decentring them as the 'offending problem' and instead understanding their actions and interactions in the context of their relation to others. We show how, from this perspective, effective youth justice practice takes time and a positive, relational approach to working with young people.
Perspectives
During 2015 I was involved in research on a cohort of young people in Wales who were identified (in 2009-10) as 'prolific' in their offending. The research involved following up on this group six years later via case file analysis and interviews with youth offending team workers and some of the now young adults themselves. This research provided insights into what helps young people in difficult circumstances to develop positive identities and what can make it hard for them to stay out of trouble. We came to recognise that the most effective practice - in terms of helping young people move towards positive 'pro-social' lifestyles and identities - was embedded in human relationships and involved workers who took time to understand the young people and 'what made them tick'. Applying a social-ecological lens allowed us to elaborate and explain the various elements of working in this way.
Dr Diana Johns
University of Melbourne
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ecological Youth Justice: Understanding the Social Ecology of Young People’s Prolific Offending, Youth Justice, September 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1473225416665611.
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