Position Paper 2023

Transdisciplinary Research for Youth Justice – Position Paper 2023 10 2. Establishing context 2.1 The challenges we face The number of young people in custodial settings has dramatically reduced in the last 14 years from over 3,000 in 2008 to around 500 in 2022 with a 75% drop in offences since 2010. However, there are still almost 50,000 children and young people who come into conflict with the law in a year (Youth Justice Board, 2020) with 68% reoffending within one year (Youth Justice Board, 2020). It means those in custody are some of the most troubled young people in society at risk of becoming entrenched within the system. Further, the drop in custodial sentences have not benefitted those from black or minority ethnic backgrounds (Muncie, 2015). Consequently, the already disproportionate number of black or minority ethnic young people with custodial sentence has become even more disproportionate. For example, black or minority ethnic communities make up 9.5% of the population, but 14.4% are sentenced to immediate custody (Ministry of Justice, 2013). They also make up 16% of first-time entrants into the youth justice system. This all points to a system which is biased against particular groups of society which requires it own solutions. Further, compared to their peers in the general population, young people in conflict with the law, have a higher prevalence of drug and alcohol misuse, higher rates of mental health problems and higher levels of learning difficulties (Ayres, 2021 Chitsabesen et al, 2016; Nkoana et al, 2020; Hughes, 2015). Additional socioemotional problems such as anxiety and depression (Winstanley et al, 2019), behavioural problems (Young et al, 2015) and language and communication difficulties (Snow et al, 2016) are also more prevalent. There are higher rates of co-morbidity in the prevalence of these problems which also tend to be related to disrupted attachments and other traumatic life events (Loeber et al, 2014; Moran et al, 2017). The UN Convention on Rights of the Child – (Justice) now holds that children with neurodevelopmental issues are more likely to enter the youth/criminal justice system and is linked to school exclusion and higher incidences of traumatic brain injury and learning disabilities (Nkoana et al, 2020). These issues demonstrate the complexity of the lives and circumstances of young people who come into contact with youth justice. 2.2 The role of Education As children and young people are expected to be in full time education or training until the age of 19, time whilst incarcerated can represent a golden opportunity to re-engage the children and young people with learning, and facilitate onward education and training when