RSS 1.0Applied social sciences
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"Believing" in youth justiceThis chapter will explore the dynamics of young offenders’ world views and the importance of understanding and utilising this concept as a resource for effective practice in youth justice. It will examine the role of religion in youth justice; how the interplay between a young person’s agency, beliefs, values and behaviour generates possibilities for change. The particular focus will be on young people’s religious identity and its implications for supporting the initial transitions towards abstinence from offending. The chapter will discuss the issues for practitioners of developing “religious literacy” and explore strategies for opening up conversations with young people about their belief systems. The notion of the good life as a life worth living will be scrutinised as a strengths-based model of rehabilitation through identifying youth offenders’ future goals and intended strategies for achieving them. Furthermore, it will examine the notion of moral exemplars as a catalyst for transformation. The importance of faith communities as a resource for practitioners and young people in conflict with the law will also be explored.
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If you want to help us, you need to hear usContextual Safeguarding (CS) offers a framework where participation is crucial to keeping young people safe in their different contexts beyond their homes. Moving from this conceptual framework to the practical creation of a system that is meaningfully informed by young people, however, presents a number of research and ethical challenges. The creation and implementation of CS systems within local authorities in England and Wales provides an opportunity to explore methodological considerations of consulting with young people on initial system design. In this chapter, we will reflect on the current child protection system and the challenges it presents when embedding participatory practices and developing CS approaches that are informed by the views of young people. Reflecting on commenced efforts to adopt a CS approach within local authorities as part of the Scale-Up Project and drawing on research into the role of participation as protection, we will discuss a number of considerations for carrying out consultative research with young people and introduce some of the emerging themes from young people who participated in the Scale-Up research areas, which, we argue, are essential for developing CS, and advocate for meaningful participatory practice in child protection systems.
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The Premier League: breaking the cycle of gang violenceIn this chapter, The Premier League: Breaking the Cycle of Gang Violence, Christine Barter, Paul Hargreaves, Kelly Bracewell and John Pitts report on the findings of the BBC Children in Need and the Premier League Charitable Fund programme Breaking the Cycle of Youth Violence. The programme, was based on eight Premier League football clubs in England (Arsenal, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Everton, Newcastle United, Southampton, Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur). It aimed to reduce youth violence in the communities in which Premier League football clubs operated. Each of the eight participating clubs had Club Community Organisations funded through the BCYV programme that undertook work with young people in their catchment area. This chapter is based on those elements of the programme which investigated the clubs responses to gang-involved young people in their area.
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Supporting young women affected by gang association and county linesIn this chapter, Supporting Young Women Affected by Gang Association and County Lines, Fiona Factor & Abi Billinghurst outline the political and practice context of supporting young women affected by gang association and County Lines drug dealing. It presents the model of practice developed by Abianda, a social enterprise in London working with young women. The authors consider the key practice challenges faced by Abianda when delivering gender specific services, and how the learning gleaned from their combined experience in research and professional practice, could be helpful to policy makers and practitioners working with girls and young women.
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Value-informed approaches to peer mapping and assessment: learning from test sitesPeer relationships are relevant to safeguarding young people affected by extra-familial harm (EFH) and, in recent years, local authorities have become increasingly interested in using peer mapping and peer assessment to support their safeguarding responses. This chapter explores some of the themes which have surfaced while reflecting on the developing practice with peers being piloted by the Contextual Safeguarding (CS) test sites. We foreground the views of young people to emphasise the importance of engaging and working alongside them in developing this practice. We use this to outline some potential benefits and risks identified in the data of safeguarding work with peer groups and reflect on what could happen when these practices are employed without the application of the values. The chapter explores three connected themes which have emerged from the data to help consider priorities for developing peer mapping and assessments. They include leading with a child welfare rather than crime detection lens, building relationships of trust over relationships of surveillance and moving beyond mapping to understand and respond to the social conditions of abuse. We contemplate the notion that how we undertake work with peers is as important as what we do.
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Building resilience in social work: a multi-level approachSocial care work is rewarding, but complex and emotionally demanding. The intrinsic pressures of the role combined with the broader context of contemporary social work presents many challenges and practitioners are vulnerable to work-related stress and burnout. This has negative implications not only for their own wellbeing, but also their ability to work effectively with service users. In this chapter, we focus on the need for a systemic, multi-level approach to building resilience in social work organizations. Firstly, we provide an overview of literature that has examined the wellbeing of social workers and the key risk factors and then highlight the potential for resilience to help them manage the emotional hazards of practice and remain healthy and effective. While resilience is typically characterised by the ability of individuals to learn and adapt to adversity, it is only sustainable when underpinned by supportive organizational policies and practices. We maintain that what is considered "resilience" is shaped by the context within which people operate-the demands they experience, the qualities they require do their job effectively, and the features of their working environment. Drawing on research conducted by ourselves and others, we set out a systemic approach that identifies the meaning of resilience in social work settings and the individual and organizational factors that underpin it. We also identify actions that can be taken at individual, team and organizational levels to foster a workplace climate that builds the capacity for resilience among social workers to support their wellbeing and optimum practice.
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Race and gangs: towards a Black criminologySuzella Palmer argues that much of (mainstream) UK gang research has obscured the ‘relevance of racism’, choosing instead to pathologies young black males. Although the implicit aim of this research is to reduce serious youth violence, it is hampered, she contends, by a failure to capture the lived realities of young black men; how they make sense of their experiences, how this informs their world view and how it shapes their behaviour. Her belief is that ‘Despite the numerous studies commissioned and conducted, numbers crunched, analysis and re-analysis of official statistics, and papers churned out on this issue, mainstream criminology in Britain is, for the most part, ‘out of touch’, with the Black communities that it has repeatedly scrutinised’. As a result, she argues, what is needed is a ‘Black criminology’ that identifies the unique, racially specific, conditions rooted in concentrated disadvantage in segregated communities, racial socialisation by parents, experiences with and perceptions of racial discrimination, and disproportionate involvement and unjust treatment in the criminal justice system.
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Cloaking class: making the working class visibleSince the 1970s, wealth inequality in the UK has been rising year on year with the only exception being the early 2000s when the Blair Labour government made a few tweaks through their tax credit policy, slowing down the rapid widening of the wealth gap for a few short years. The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government's austerity measures in 2010 speeded the process up to such an extent that by 2014 the gap between the wealthy and the poor had never been greater (Hills, 2014). Consequently, it should come as no surprise that in the country where the Industrial Revolution began – and, as E.P. Thompson chronicled, the English working class were made – the vertical class system that capitalism needs to function is in great shape. There has been a redistribution of wealth from the poorest upwards since 2010 (ONS, 2021). The divisions between the rich and the poor both in the UK and in Europe have never been greater in modern times, and there is now a full body of work from academics studying economics, sociology, anthropology and urbanism, focusing on the elites and the evergrowing wealth gaps particularly in the UK and within Europe (Savage, 2010, 2015, 2021; Picketty, 2014; Atkinson et al, 2017). However, the narrative of a solution to the widening wealth gap has focused somewhat on social mobility and meritocracy. To an extent, these concepts acknowledge the structured nature of inequality within capitalist societies, but for the most part social mobility is still seen as an individual act of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. The social mobility narratives favoured by governments and administrations focus on shaping and introducing specific policies targeted at the bottom of society with the intention of creating ‘fairer opportunities’, with the hope that this will change the fates of some working-class people who are ‘hardworking’, ‘naturally clever’, and who accept without complaint the dominant narratives and culture (Friedman and Laurison, 2019; Social Mobility Commission, 2021). However, these policies focusing on social mobility are not intended to change the system, nor to tackle the unfair advantages the system awards to those in the middle or at the top.
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Young people, gangs and paramilitary violence in Northern IrelandYouth gangs and paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland, John Pitts, citing research undertaken over several decades in Northern Ireland, considers the legacy of the ‘Troubles’ for the children, young people and families who live in the sectarian strongholds of the Province. He endeavors to explain something of the mindset of many of the people living in these areas, their sense of victimization and the burden this places on the younger generation. By way of example, he charts the history of the Tartan youth gangs that morphed into a faction of the ‘Loyalist’’ Ulster Defence Association and notes that despite the 1996 peace accord young people continue to be recruited into both Loyalist and Nationalist organizations which may then involve them in fund-raising via drug-dealing and violent street demonstrations. He concludes with a consideration of how re-framing this situation as a children’s rights issue could constitute part of the solution.
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‘Why them?’ ‘Why then?’ ‘Why there?’: the political economy of gangland‘Why them?’ ‘Why then?’ ‘Why there?’: The Political Economy of Gangland, John Pitts, argues that European gang scholarship has largely ignored the social, economic and political contexts from which street gangs emerge or in which they mutate. And it has therefore failed to understand the ‘politics of gangland’. The chapter considers how changes in the social, economic and political circumstances surrounding the emergence of different types of twentieth-century youth gangs in England, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Russia have affected their constitution, affiliations and activities. In exploring the differences and commonalities between these different groupings, he finds that, in each instance, the young people involved are drawn from socially and economically disadvantaged populations who experience social stigma by virtue of their ethnicity or social status. However, as he argues, that their involvement in gang crime and/or oppositional youth movements is profoundly affected by historical and contemporaneous economic and/or political events.
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The Palgrave handbook of youth gangs in the UKThis handbook brings together cutting-edge research from key contributors on the rapidly expanding and fast-changing field of UK youth gangs. It examines the contours of the academic debates, describes and explains the origins and evolution of violent street gangs in the UK against a backdrop of globalization, and discusses the factors surrounding the emergence of these gangs in each of the four UK nations and some English regions. It also examines the relationship between gangs and wider issues relating to gender, ethnicity, drug distribution and organised crime. It critically assesses the potential and limitations of ‘Public Health’ approaches to gang violence reduction and the government’s policy responses to violent street gangs in the UK. Providing a broad examination of the latest UK gangs research, with international comparisons, it is essential reading for undergraduate and post-graduate students, in criminology, sociology, social policy and law, policy makers at local and central government level, and practitioners in the fields of law, policing, youth work, social work, housing and workers in dedicated voluntary sector organizations.
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The English street gang and government policyJohn Pitts outlines governmental responses to ‘gang’ and serious youth violence in the twenty-first century. He observes that although gang-related knife and gun crime among children and young people of African Caribbean descent was rising rapidly in London from 2004, it was the murder of Rhys Jones, an 11 year-old White boy, in Liverpool, in August 2007 that caused Prime Minister Gordon Brown to launch the Tackling Gangs Action Programme (TGAP). Later, the 2011 riots triggered the Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme of 2012, initially targeting 30 areas and extended to a further 22 in 2016. Evaluations of the programme were equivocal but by now the government’s focus had shifted to child sexual and criminal exploitation and County Lines drug dealing, withdrawing funds from local authorities and handing responsibility to the National Crime Agency. Nonetheless County Lines proliferated and knife crime soared, leading PM Theresa May to convene a Serious Youth Violence Summit in February 2019. Maintaining that we could not ‘arrest our way out of the problem’ May placed a requirement on health and welfare agencies to prioritise youth violence prevention. However, July 2019 saw the election of Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel who promised more stop and searches, more police and more prison places.
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Safeguarding, young people and gangsSafeguarding, Young People and Gangs, Isabelle Brodie explores how safeguarding policy and practice have been applied, and not applied, to the issue of youth violence in gangs and drug trafficking via county lines, and the significance of this for the experience of young people, their families and the professionals who work with them. The chapter places the issue of gangs and county lines within the policy discourse of ‘child exploitation’which has gradually emerged over the past 20 years. It considers the extent to which this discourse serves to promote a safeguarding approach to the children and young people concerned, or whether it has generated a new set of difficulties. It will argue that understanding of this issue in the contexts of the lives of children, young people and their families has been constrained by the nature of the discourses surrounding young people in trouble of various kinds. These include assumptions relating to age, gender, race and ethnicity as well as the ‘blind spots’that exist within the worlds of policy, practice and research conversations. These fissures are deeply rooted, she argues, and have historically been little recognised, far less overcome.
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Supporting learners working with children and young peopleChapter 10 presents a broad focus on the support of students and apprentices within children’s and young people’s services, including the need for learners to appreciate the importance of family with reference to the post-pandemic era. The role of practice supervisors, assessors and educators in the development of students and apprentices to develop advocacy skills is outlined within the context of the relationship between theoretical perspectives that are relevant to the development of child as well as adult learners.
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Pornography is not the answer (it isn't even the right question): reflections from practice in tackling sexual harassment and harmful sexualised behaviours in response to Everyone's Invited and the Online Safety BillThis chapter reflects on the issues of sexual harassment and harmful sexualised behaviours in schools, as highlighted by the Everyone's Invited Campaign and the subsequent Ofsted report. It challenges the response from some commentators to blame these behaviours as being the result of young people's exposure to online pornography and the influence of social media. Instead, drawing upon direct practice experiences during the summer of 2021, this chapter presents alternative answers that promote the voice of young people. This includes examining the potential negative impact of shame-based approaches and discourse that frame pornography as a problem, whilst ignoring broader the inequality of gendered social scripts present in wider society and experienced by young people in school. There is a discussion of gaps within relationship and sex education. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of how increasingly young people are using digital platforms to claim their rights and to challenge those in authority when their concerns are left unanswered.
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Social worker decision-making: a framework for legally literate accountable practiceSocial workers make decisions every day involving the protection of children and/or adults who are at risk of, or are experiencing, abuse and neglect, exercising power and authority derived from law. Social workers must act within the law: "doing things right." Accountable, legally literate practice additionally includes standards from administrative law when statutory duties are used. However, decision-making frequently also raises ethical dilemmas, including whether, when, and how to intervene in people's lives. Practice must, therefore, be ethically literate: "doing right things." Human rights, equality, and social justice issues will also feature in social work decision-making: "right thinking." This chapter presents a framework for social worker decision-making that is legally and ethically, but also emotionally, relationally, organizationally and knowledge, literate. It proposes that this framework is transferable across the different jurisdictions within which social workers practice, and that it helps social workers to make good as well as lawful decisions.
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Desistance and children: setting the sceneSince the late 1990s, ‘desistance’ – understanding how people move away from offending – has become a significant research focus and ‘increasingly ubiquitous’ in central policy (Maruna and Mann, 2019). Since 2014, with the introduction by the Youth Justice Board of a new assessment framework, desistance thinking has been progressively transplanted to youth justice in England and Wales from the adult justice system. Given that the desistance evidence base is primarily rooted in the experiences of adults who have a history of criminal behaviour, one might have expected this development to have been accompanied by some debate. Yet, discussion or examination of the relevance of desistance thinking to children in the justice system remains scarce, comprising a significant and important gap in scholarship. While there is a limited, albeit developing, international knowledge base about the desistance pathways of children, these studies have typically focused only on children defined as ‘serious’ or ‘persistent’ ‘offenders’. With desistance thinking increasingly applied across the spectrum of youth justice sanctions in England and Wales, it has become necessary to understand, and question, the relevance of desistance thinking with a much broader group of children. This is particularly pressing in light of the growing proportion of out-of-court disposals within youth justice caseloads, which comprise nearly half of supervision cases in some areas. And even among children on court-ordered community sentences, nearly 80 per cent now either have no or a minimal history of recorded offending (Youth Justice Board/MoJ, 2023). How might desistance theories apply given that most children’s offending ‘careers’ are limited to adolescence (Moffitt, 1993) and, thus, desistance is largely normative? Our starting point is that children’s distinct needs, by virtue of their young age and ongoing development, together with their typically normative offending, raise important questions about the relevance and meaning of desistance thinking to their pathways away from crime. In light of this, our core guiding questions are: * What helps children to move away from offending, and in what ways, if at all, does this vary by ethnicity, class and gender? * To what extent is the concept and theorisation of desistance helpful when applied to children or does it, alternatively problematise rather than normalise children’s behaviour? * How is desistance thinking currently understood and implemented in youth justice policy and practice? * What are the implications of the answers to these questions for youth justice theory, research, policy and practice? The collection has been initiated by the National Association for Youth Justice (NAYJ), the only individual charity which campaigns exclusively for the rights of, and justice for, children in trouble with the law. The NAYJ believes that children who come to the attention of criminal justice agencies should be viewed individually according to their stage of development and treated as a child first and foremost (National Association for Youth Justice, 2019). The editors of this collection are all members of the NAYJ’s Board of Trustees. Given that the charity is based in England and Wales, we have not attempted to give the book an international focus. However, it is likely that many of the chapters will be of international interest given that the role of desistance theory within youth justice is not restricted to a single jurisdiction. Given the focus of the NAYJ’s work, our philosophical position that children should be treated as distinct from adults, and the relative dearth of literature specific to desistance and children, the book deliberately, and unapologetically, restricts itself to discussion of individuals in conflict with the law who are under 18. In line with the ethos of the NAYJ, and international standards of children’s rights, we refer throughout to these individuals as children, and the terms ‘youth’, ‘juvenile’ and ‘young offender’ are deliberately eschewed.
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Desistance and children: critical reflections from theory, research and practiceAvailable open access digitally under CC BY-NC-ND licence. 'Desistance' - understanding how people move away from offending - has become a significant policy focus in recent years, with desistance thinking transplanted from the adult to the youth justice system in England and Wales. This book is the first to critique this approach to justice-involved children, many of whom are yet to fully develop an identity (criminal or otherwise) from which to 'desist'. Featuring voices from academia, policy and practice, this book explores practical approaches to desistance with children in the 'Child First' context. It gives new insights into how children can be supported to move away from offending and proposes reforms to make a meaningful difference to children's lives.
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What next for desistance and youth justice?The roots of this book lie in conversations about desistance and children in early 2021 that originated following an online event with academics, practitioners and policymakers who energetically critiqued and commented on the relevance and application of desistance theories to youth justice-involved children. While the purpose of the online event was to launch a briefing paper on desistance and youth justice, and thus mark the culmination of the National Association for Youth Justice’s (NAYJ) work on the topic, the discussions led to a number of reflections and questions. What helps children to move away from offending? To what extent is the concept and theorisation of desistance useful to explaining this during childhood and adolescence? Does the application of desistance theories risk problematising rather than normalising children’s behaviour? How is desistance thinking understood, interpreted and implemented in youth justice policy and practice?