Police decision-making with young offenders: Examining barriers to the use of diversion options

Abstract

Youth justice policies in Australia feature an overall welfare-oriented approach and an emphasis on diverting young people away from the justice system. Nevertheless, some young people, particularly those with complex needs, are incarcerated at a young age and are at greater risk of poor outcomes. This paper explores barriers to the use of diversion options by police through analysis of in-depth interviews with 25 police staff. Consistent with the previous literature, role constraints, workload and lack of specialist knowledge were discussed. This paper explores the interplay of these factors with values, beliefs and expectations about young offenders – many of which were framed by experiences of adversarial encounters with young people and damaged faith in the system to rehabilitate. Naturalistic decision-making scholarship is drawn on to identify the potential role of ‘schemas’ in police use of discretion and of practical strategies that may support welfare and rehabilitation-oriented police practice with young people.

Examining the role of police-led diversion in the youth crime decline in Australia: a macro-level longitudinal analysis

“…Conversely, the youth crime decline in NSW has been posited as being driven in part by factors such as increased police presence that occurred over the initial period of the decline, as well as increased arrests and associated increases in incarceration and incapacitation (Payne et al, 2018) Diversion in Australia is heterogeneous and disparate with notable differences in diversion programs across state and territories. Common criticisms of youth diversion in Australia include that diversionary options are often under-utilised and not implemented systematically, with variations in police practices around pre-charge diversion, irrespective of policy directives (Green et al, 2020). Recent studies in the U.S. and U.K. have found disparities in access to diversion for racial and ethnic minority young people (Padgaonkar et al, 2021;Shiner et al, 2018).…”

“…Reasons for these disparities include officer bias, the lack of availability of some diversion options in regional and remote communities where there can be concentrations of First Nations youth, the presence of other complicating psycho-social factors which can make diversion challenging (e.g. homelessness, lack of social support structures, substance use), and the seriousness of the offending behaviour (Cunneen, 2006;Green et al, 2020;Little et al, 2011;Papalia et al, 2019). Additionally, an enduring lack of trust between First Nations communities and police in Australia, descending from long histories of police mistreatment of First Nations communities, has been argued to reduce First Nations young people willingness to admit guilt for an offence (Cunneen, 2006;Green et al, 2020), which is a key precondition for diversion.…”

“…homelessness, lack of social support structures, substance use), and the seriousness of the offending behaviour (Cunneen, 2006;Green et al, 2020;Little et al, 2011;Papalia et al, 2019). Additionally, an enduring lack of trust between First Nations communities and police in Australia, descending from long histories of police mistreatment of First Nations communities, has been argued to reduce First Nations young people willingness to admit guilt for an offence (Cunneen, 2006;Green et al, 2020), which is a key precondition for diversion. Thus, it is important to examine any differences in diversion applications for First Nations young people.…”

“…If diversion is not applied to the first offending incident, any future application of diversion will be dependent on the existence of future recorded offending behaviour. While the experience of diversion is dependent on offending behaviour, it is also to some extent dependent on the offending history of a young person at the time of the offending incident, as the extent of offending history has been noted as a key factor in police decisions about whether to apply diversion to a youth offending incident (Green et al, 2020). Thus, to more fully account for the influence of contemporaneous offending and offending history on the likelihood of receiving diversion, the cumulative number of offences at each offending incident were used as a predictor of diversion.…”

Peculiarities of the formation and application of the institute of diversion (diverting) of children from criminal justice in the Kyrgyz Republic

“…At the same time, it is noted that the diversion (diverting) of children from criminal justice should be seen as part of a complex system. Thus, R. Green et al (2019) point to the need for a systemic approach, where the practice of using this mechanism is closely linked to general measures of prevention and social control, early detection of the possibility of delinquent behaviour of children and adolescents.…”