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Towards A Whole System Approach

Youth Justice Servicesin Scotland

2011

Bill Whyte

www.cjsw.ac.uk

• Practice Objectives

• Provide effective measures for…care, protection .. or control

• Enable children and families to recognise and tackle successfully their difficulties and problems

• Reduce offending behaviour• Help ensure school attendance• Provide programmes of supervision ..to integrate

the child in the community • Maintain confidence of panel members and the public

in...effectiveness• C(S)Act 1995: Ch 2 par4

                                  

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• UN Convention on the Rights of the ChildBeijing Rules, 1985

– well being of the young person– emotional, mental and intellectual maturity

– extra judicial approaches and socio-educational responses– avoidance of deprivation of liberty

Riyadh Guidelines, 1990 early intervention - shared responsibility multi disciplinary responses Havana Rules, 1990 -role of prosecutors and diversionTokyo Rules 1990 – non custodial

measuresVienna Guidelines 1997 – child oriented youth justice systems

ECHR – Art 8 - right to avoid state involvement

Howard League July 2007– High Court Review on under 18s in Criminal Justice/Detention = Children in need und

                                  

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• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• UNC 1995 ‘uncooperative and arrogant’. ‘

• UNC 2002 ‘below what should be expected from a ‘great country’

• EC 2005 juvenile trouble-makers are too rapidly drawn into the criminal justice system and young offenders too readily placed in detention, when greater attention to alternative forms of supervision and targeted early intervention would be more effective’ (EC, 2005, para 81).

• conclusion that preventive intervention was ‘minimal’ in the UK (para 94).

• UNC 2007 lack of children’s rights approach

                                  

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‘not only do some of the (UN) Committee’s Concluding Observations of 2002 still lack any effective implementation, but

some things have actually got worse’ (UK Children’s Commissioners 2008:4)

‘UNCRC applies to all young people’ (Scottish Government response 2008)

European Rules for Juvenile Subject to Sanctions or Measures 2008

sanctions to be based on best interests, social integration, social education and prevention; multi-disciplinary

Council of Europe Guidance Child Friendly Justice 2010 - no child under 18 prosecuted in an adult court

                                  

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• +75% under 18s in YOI – care background• Between 80-100% return rate for under 18s• high levels of secure placements• youth court –criminalising 500-600 per year• 16-17s in adult court? • +9000 adult convictions on under 18s (2008)• Average age of adult conviction 18

                                  

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Preventing Offending by Young People – A Framework for Action 2008

• Tackling the causes and effects of offending by young people is key to building safe and strong communities

• Prevention –early years framework

• Early and effective intervention

• Managing high risk

• Victims and community confidence

• Planning and performance improvement ( para 1.3)

                                  

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• What predicts early onset and conviction by 22?

• Early police warnings and charges

• Early school exclusion

• Early parental breakdown • (McAra and McVeigh 2009)

• youth justice should promote generic early intervention at point of need, provide universal services to all children and families and ensure service provision is diversionary ESYT 2011

                                  

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• Antisocial Behaviour in Scotland• Chief Superintendent Neil Wain, of Greater Manchester Police ‘The

ASBO: Wrong Turning, Dead End (2007) Howard League

• On their own, ASBOs can't solve the deep-seated problems

• " work to instill a culture of personal and collective responsibility .. guided by the principle that prevention is better than cure in reducing crime and antisocial behaviour.“

• (Scottish Executive 2007)

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serious offending linked to a broad range of vulnerabilities and social adversity; 6% of weapon carriers 25% of all incidents risky lifestyle and socially disadvantaged ESYT 2010

early identification of at-risk children is not an exact science - risk of labelling and stigmatising

integrate socio-economic strategies with individual and group intervention strategies Bannister et al 2010

pathways out of offending facilitated/impeded by critical moments - school exclusion;diversionary strategies facilitate desistance

                                  

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• Victims or Villains? • a third of young people who offend have been maltreated as children

(Weatherburn and Lind, 1997)

• 30% had already been referred as at risk of being victims of crime, abuse (Whyte, 2004, p 404).

• being a victim of crime by age 12 was strongly associated with subsequent delinquency and that victimisation predicted delinquency three years later (Smith, 2004).

• delinquency ‘seven times as high’ among those who had been victims of five types of crime - victim of assault with a weapon and of robbery was most associated with later delinquency (Smith, 2004).

• getting involved in risky activities/situations and social associations.

• victimisation and offending are ‘twin aspects of the same social settings, social interactions, behaviour patterns and personal characteristics’ (Smith, 2004, p 18).

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• Early Onset or Life course and persistent• Criminal & anti-social at an early age PLUS• Multiple difficulties:

• disruptive and disrupted families• social & educational difficulties

• alcohol & drug problems• ASB, pre-criminal behaviour

• bullying , aggression, or other violent activity with anti social activity• Adolescent limited

• Anti-social peers• Criminality in the family• Poor educational attachment and achievement alcohol and drugs

Moffitt 1991; Rutter et al 1998

• Risk of serious offending 2-3 times higher for child aged 7 to 12 involved in ASB or offendingthan for youth whose onset of delinquency is later

• McGarrell, 2001 Loeber, Farrington, and Petechuk, 2002

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.• Neighbourhood Stress• Social housing and amenities• Household size and constitution • Family disruption• Population changes• Working habits• Quality time• Child and family poverty• Drug, alcohol and mental health issues

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• Understanding Crime

•

• •the background of the asb/crime

• •the form

• •the social and moral context

• •the situation

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.

ALL Day of Offence % (n) Average

Time Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun %

8am - 4 pm 46 (112)

35 (81)

41(110)

46(119)

33 (102)

37(82)

39(69) 40

(675)

4-5 pm 12(30)

8 (18)

10(26)

3(8)

2(7)

7(16)

8(14)

7(119)

5-10 pm 35 (85)

42 (96)

36 (95)

34(89) 45

(137)42(92)

33(59) 38

(653)

After 10 pm 7 (18)

15(36)

13(34)

17(45)

20(60)

14(30) 20

(35)15(258)

Total 100(245)

100 (231)

100 (265)

100(261)

100(306)

100(220)

100(177)

100

(1705)

59(1002

41(703)

100(1705)

Referrals by Day and Time of Offence for YP under 15

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• Early preventive practice• diverting young people from formal systems

altogether – avoid netwidening• target resources to those who continue to

present the greatest risk• set practices for ASB and youth crime within a

wider social inclusion framework

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Early preventive practice

universal ‘pick-up’ points -health visiting of (all) under-fives transitions to primary school (5-8) to secondary school (11-13), preparation for leaving school (over 15) entering the world of work.

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• Prevention & Early intervention – Pick ups

• Under 5 - persistent attention-seeking, non-compliance, physically aggressive behaviour – HALT 4

• in-home skills based modelling • Age 5-8 isolated unpopular, poor concentration - Statutory assessment

• parent skills programme and individual developmental work with child• Age 8-11 bullying and anti-social associations• As above with greater focus on parental supervision, school enhancement,

behaviour, associations• Age 11-14 Literacy, numeracy, personal management, ASB, offending

• structured family work• Age 15+ persistent offending

• multi-systemic family focused work, offence focused programmes

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.• Promoting Social Welfare• Whole Systems

• linking youth justice strategies more closely with other strategies supporting young people

• developing the role of youth work• making stronger connections between youth

justice and education• reviewing access to mental health services• enhancing the role of sport, the arts and

cultural opportunities in building young people’s self-esteem

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..Tiered or Graduated Approach

Local threshold - voluntary

Early Intervention

Critical Statutory threshold - Compulsory

PreventionDiversion

Mainstream provision

Seriousness of concern

HighIntensive

Low level concern

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A Tiered or Graduated Approach to Youth Justice

proportionality, viz that young people who offend should receive the level, type and intensity of service appropriate to their needs and to the degree of risk they represent to the community

Practitioners require a shared understanding of the principles — both welfare and compulsion — underlying the delivery of youth justice services and of their location and responsibilities within the system

Recognises that 70 % + of young people who commit an offence do not go on to commit further offences and may not require specialist intervention

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• Some things do work sometimes!

• action-oriented methods

• social learning methods

• cognitive-behavioural

• life skills

• family work• Reid and Fortune, 1998

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..• Need-Risk Principles(RNR)

AssessmentPlanningEvaluation

Risk-NeedOffence-focus

ResponsivityMulti-modalCommunity basedProgramme Integrity

ListeningCommunicationRecording

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.• Crime sustaining ‘needs (Criminogenic)• changing anti-social attitudes , feelings and associations

• promoting familial attachment, affection, communication, monitoring, supervision and protection = structured family work

• developing positive social role models

• increasing self control, self management and problem solving skills

• replacing the skills of lying, stealing and aggression with more pro-social alternatives

• reducing misuse of chemical substances

• shifting the distribution of rewards and costs associated with offending behaviour so that non criminal activity is favoured

• confronting the personal and circumstantial barriers in the way of effective service outcomes.

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.• Social Integration and Desistence• Case management,

• Human Agency – the active participation of individuals in structuring their own lives.

• (Laub and Sampson, 2004) • Building Capacity - productive investment• Human capital – personal change resources• Social Capital –changes in social relations• Cultural Capital – change social opportunities• ‘Hope’ -successful personal agency related to goals

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.Resilience Matrix

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Service Strategy -whole systems approach Functioning and Capability

age appropriate intervention – agency and respect, family conferencing, reparation parenting skills/supervision pro- social buddies/mentorsdirect work with young peoplemoral reasoning, offending, victims education, employment and leisuremaintenance, follow up, evaluation

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.social exclusion to social inclusion

• Linking structures and desistance

desistance produced through an interplay between individual choices, and a range of wider social forces, institutional and societal practices which are beyond the control of the individual’

Farrall and Bowling (1999 261) Consumption: the capacity to purchase goods and services;Production: participation in economically or socially valuable

activities;Political engagement: involvement in local or national decision-

making [including voting];Social interaction: integration with family, friends and community (Burchardt et al., 2002: 31):

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