Positive Youth Justice

PROBLEMS WITH CURRENT SYSTEM:

1) Children are given full responsibility for committing a complex act that has influences from factors outside their control, which are neglecte in the YJS.

2) Reduces childrens lives to quantitaitve psychosocial risk fators that neglect childrens experiences.

3) Emphasis on Neoliberal responsibilisation in which children are responsible for these psychosocial risk factors.

4) Adulterises and 'Others' children, in which they are identified for punitive treatment and control by an adult centric system.

5) Fails to acknowledge a whole child perspective.

EXAMPLE:

1) Crime & Disorder Act 1998; Mispent Youth 1996 - Individualised, Responsibilised young people. Introduced neoliberal responsibilisation and neconservative correctionalism.

POSITIVE YOUTH JUSTICE:

1)  Collective and Hollistic Understanding not just focussed on psychosocial risk fators.

2) Acknowledges childrens experiences and lives.

3) Acknowledges social and structural factors for which the government is responsible for 

4) Doesn't responsibilies, individualises or adulterises young people.

5) The offence is only one part of the childs behaviour, it isn't the master status.

EXAMPLE:

1) Asset Plus - Information gathering and description presents a hollistic whole child approach that acknowledges social an structual factors not just psychosocial biases

CURRENT SYSTEM:

1) Holds children fully responsible for committing the offence but does not give them responsibility rgarding their future.

2) Adult centric, technised, centralised practice in which adults make decisions on the childs behalf.

3) Done to children not done with children

4) Deresponsibilised for their furture

5) Children are consider 'unknowledgeable' and their voices aren't considered within key decisions regarding their future.

POSITIVE YOUTH JUSTICE MODEL:

1) Enganging with children increases their motivations to change, increases their confidence.

2) Helps form a more child friendly youth justice model.

3) Enables child and practioner relationships to be formed that is built on mutual respect, empathy.

4) Makes decisions on their future.

5) Enables pracitioners to represent children not any other groups.

6) Inclusionary model that enables children to be given a voice in their future. 

EXAMPLES

1) All Wales Youth Offending Strategy Delivery -> 'Consult with and gain the participation of youth offenders in the YJS' 

CURRENT SYSTEM OF INTERVENTION:

1) Formal contact with formal agencies is criminogenic, it increases future re-offending.

2) Formal intervention and contact exacerbates personal, social and structural problems by labelling, marginalising and stigmitisaing young people.

3) Young people develop their identity around the deviant label to which they begin being seen by it as well as living up to that label.

4) Causes more problems with future lives.

5) Intervention is consider net widening as it can be given out without the commission of a formal offence.

Positive Youth Justice:

1) More effective strategies have been located outside of formal YJ systems, in which children are not labelled, stigmitised or marginalised.

2) Formal contact should be a last resort under human rights.

3) Diversionary process aims to understand the reason for offending whilst acting in the best interests of the child.

4) Enables maturation to occur in which a child will grow out of crime and won't gain a label.

EXAMPLE- 

1) Swansea Justice Liason Beureau - Partnership with the police to bail children and send them to informal treatment strategies in which they do not develop this label. Inccured a saving of £2.8 million to the public purse.

CURRENT SYSTEM:

1) Programme fetishism that centres on neoconservative correctionalism and neoliberal responsibilisation.

2) Dehumanises children to quantifiable psychosocial risk factors that focuses on offender and offence first.

3) Based on US what works empiricisism.

4) Narrow research that presents statistical reductionist conclusions e.g Cambridge Study on Juvenile Delinquency 

5) Centralised and technicalised that structures practioniers work and removes discretion, which causes disengagment for them and the child.

EXAMPLE:

1) Crime and Disorder Act 1998; Mispent Youth 1996; Technicisied administrative centralised practices that employ psychosocial risk factor biases to young people.

POSITIVE YOUTH JUSTICE:

1) Form partnerships which employ a child-friendly and child-first perspective.

2) Understanding that children are all different so only some treatments will work for them -> Move away from what works to individual strategies. 

3) Employ all stakeholders to help develop YJ in the best interests of the child which will equipt them with the best way to develop.

4) Move away from political and organisational biases.

5) Hollistic partnerships that aim for the best interests of children.

EXAMPLE:

1) Welsh system is build on multi-agency partnerships.

2) Positive Promotion Project 2007 - Multi-agencies aimed at tackling ASB by working with stakeholder e.g families to employ a child friend engaging positive promotion environment.