A number of initiatives within Her Majesty's Prison Service have explored how best to support the needs of vulnerable young people. One such is the Access programme, which employs a combination of simple cognitive-behavioural techniques and physical activity to build confidence and increase levels of coping. Results from the evaluation of three Access courses facilitated at Her Majesty's Young Offender Institute Warren Hill, a UK institution for juvenile offenders, indicate a significant reduction in reports of bullying and fear of bullying, and significantly reduced levels of self-injury and the desire to self-injure. Psychometric measures of hopelessness, self-esteem, locus of control and assertiveness were administered before, immediately after and six weeks after the course. Measures of hopelessness were reduced after the course, and reduced levels were maintained six weeks post-intervention. Locus of control and self-esteem scores rose by the end of the course and were maintained or increased six weeks later. In general, findings were encouraging, given the level of need in this vulnerable group of young people. It is suggested that programmes such as this may provide a promising addition to strategies for dealing with problems of bullying and self-injury in juvenile prisoners.
Purpose. This review is concerned with the points of contact between two diverse literatures: first, the association between childhood abuse and the development of violent conduct; second, the effects of involvement in the perpetration of acts of violence.Method. The empirical literature in the two areas of concern is considered along with complementary explanations for the extant evidence.Results. There is a weight of evidence indicating that childhood abuse is associated with later violence alongside a literature that considers this association in terms of the traumatic effects of abuse. The perpetration of violent acts can have debilitating effects on the individual offender: these effects have also been considered in terms of trauma.
Conclusion.It is suggested that there are potential advantages to adopting a traumabased framework to inform practice with violent young people. This suggestion raises several areas for research to inform the development of evidence-based practice that are presented in outline form.The involvement of children and young people in acts of violence, including criminal violence, has generated a substantial literature exploring the individual factors and social experiences, including the experience of abuse, that may influence the development of violent behaviour
The current research explores the prevalence of bullying behaviour at HMYOI Warren Hill and the Carlford Unit. The introduction of the no-smoking policy at the establishment was also explored in relation to its effect on bullying behaviour given that tobacco has historically been the main item that young people have been bullied for. The Direct and Indirect Prisoner behaviour Checklist--Revised (DIPC-R) and a questionnaire designed to identify the effect of the introduction of the no-smoking policy on bullying behaviour were used within this study to answer the following questions: what is the prevalence of bullying behaviour at Warren Hill and the Carlford Unit, and do young people at Warren Hill and the Carlford Unit think that the rate and nature of bullying has been affected by the introduction of the no-smoking policy? One hundred and fifteen young people took part in the study. At Warren Hill, Bully/Victims were the most prevalent type identified and this was significantly greater than the number of young people identified as Pure Victims or Not Involved. On the Carlford Unit, Not Involved was the most prevalent type identified, and this finding provides limited support for the theories of bullying behaviour identified within the present study. The study found that the rate of bullying decreased following the introduction of the no-smoking policy at Warren Hill. The findings from this study are being used in the development of a new Violence Reduction Policy at HMYOI Warren Hill.
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