Youth Justice

The Children Act 2001 is the statutory framework for youth justice in Ireland. Fully in force since 2007, aspects of the Act appear to be unimplemented while in other areas practice has diverged from the Act’s provisions. Three areas are used to show where youth justice practice has diverged from the legislation: the operation of the Children Court; the use of community sanctions and the use of family conferences and restorative justice. This article studies the disconnect between the law and practice in these three areas, offers some explanation as to why it has occurred and proposes some solutions for how it might be addressed.

Policy and practice in education, health, social care and youth justice have increasingly reflected the assumption that the more ‘risk factors’ a child experiences, the more likely s/he is to suffer ‘negative’ outcomes (including involvement in ‘anti-social’ or ‘criminal’ behaviour). This has led to an emphasis on targeting individuals considered ‘at risk’ through ‘early intervention’ programmes. At the heart of debate about such programmes is their intended objective: addressing the needs of any child or young person as they are identified?; prevention of offending based on assessment of ‘criminogenic’ risk factors?; or diversion from the formal criminal justice system for those already involved in ‘anti-social’ or ‘criminal’ behaviours? The needs and circumstances of children defined ‘at risk of offending’ are often the same as those of children ‘in need’. If they are considered ‘in trouble’ rather than ‘troubled’, emphasis is potentially shifted away from their personal development and well-being towards their regulation and criminalization. Drawing on primary research with practitioners implementing an ‘Early Intervention for the Prevention of Offending’ Programme for 8−13 year-olds in Northern Ireland, this article explores the tensions involved in ‘addressing need’ and ‘preventing offending’.

Interventions within youth justice systems draw on a range of rationales and philosophies. Traditionally demarcated by a welfare/justice binary, the complex array of contemporary rationales meld different philosophies and practices, suggesting a mutability that gives this sphere a continued (re)productive and felt effect. While it may be increasingly difficult to ascertain which of these discourses is dominant in different jurisdictions in the UK, particular models of justice are perceived to be more prominent (Muncie, 2006). Traditionally it is assumed that Northern Ireland prioritizes restoration, Wales prioritizes rights, England priorities risk and Scotland welfare (McVie, 2011; Muncie, 2008, 2011). However, how these discourses are enacted in practice, how multiple and competing rationales circulate within them and most fundamentally how they are experienced by young people is less clear. This article, based on research with young people who have experienced the full range of interventions in the youth justice system in Northern Ireland, examines their narratives of ‘justice’. It considers how different discourses might influence the same intervention and how the deployment of multiple rationalities gives the experience of ‘justice’ its effect.

This article draws on an analysis of young people’s offending careers. The research was initiated against a backdrop of changing discourse around youth justice in Ireland with a shift towards prevention of offending and diversion from the criminal justice system. Locating crime and criminal justice contact within a biographical context indicated that participants’ offending, and lives generally, was bound up in marginalized transitions to adulthood, and embedded within social and economic environments characterized by high deprivation. The findings support a further shift in focus towards addressing social injustice as a necessary prerequisite to tackle the origins of youth offending.

Statistics reveal that young men from working class communities are over-represented amongst victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles, suicides, crime, school suspensions, expulsions and academic underachievement. Despite a new political context of peacebuilding the relationship between violence and personal safety continues to be critical to marginalized young men’s everyday lives and experiences. Drawing upon primary research from a five year longitudinal study and previous studies carried out by the Centre for Young Men’s Studies, this article provides a critical analysis of young men born after the 1994 ceasefires, capturing their sense of alienation, perceived normality of violence, unwelcomed interactions with paramilitary members and restrictive notions of masculinity. These factors combined with attitudes of suspicion and distrust surrounding the role of the police leaves young men feeling confused about law and youth justice. This article argues the need for a more relevant school curriculum informed by, and aimed specifically at, engaging young men through a youth work methodology addressing the themes of youth justice, violence and masculinity. The authors acknowledge that whilst addressing the behaviour of certain young men can be very challenging, there is a need for those working with young men to more proactively engage young men through a ‘Balanced Approach’ of collaborative working between formal, informal and non-formal education.