Position Paper 2023

Transdisciplinary Research for Youth Justice – Position Paper 2023 11 back in the community (Coates, 2016), thereby preventing opportunities for reoffending. The education system thus has multiple opportunities to intervene, providing we can keep them engaged. Education can have transformative potential for people who come into conflict with the law (Behan, 2014). However, this is not so simple given the evidence that children and young people who come into conflict with the law have low education attainment and nine out of ten have dropped out of school (Little, 2015; ahmed Shafi 2018). This reflects the complex and challenging backgrounds and experiences of young people who come into conflict with the law. These include family breakdown, lower socioeconomic status, learning difficulties and mental health, all of which can impact on learning. Other research (e.g. Jacobson et al, 2010) found that 76% of young people who offended had an absent father and 33% had an absent mother. Young people who offend are also more likely to have parents who have been incarcerated (Farrington, Ttofi, Crago, & Coid, 2015) and more likely to have been exposed to drugs and alcohol abuse (Manly et al, 2013). Furthermore, given that when young people are released, they are likely to return to the same circumstances that may have led to the offending behaviour – perhaps explaining why such a high proportion of young people reoffend. Efforts that may have been made whilst in custody seem to have little impact when the environment they return to is not conducive or consistent and so all work done quickly unravels (Altschuler & Brash, 2004; Ministry of Justice, 2013). It could be argued that incarceration is a punishment for circumstance rather than a crime since the complex backgrounds of young people who come into conflict with the law expose them to situations where they have limited choice or control of the life-paths they will follow (Arditti and Parkman, 2011). Understanding education in the secure context is critical as this context most influences the design and implementation of successful education initiatives. This can also be a bilateral dynamic however, as specifically designed educational initiatives can positively influence the context itself potentially contributing towards a more peaceful and sustainable society (UNESCO MGIEP, 2022). The educational context in a secure custodial setting is an important antecedent to the conditions required for successful re-engagement with education and learning (ahmed Shafi, 2018).