Young People’s Offending Careers and Criminal Justice Contact: A Case for Social Justice

Abstract

This article draws on an analysis of young people's offending careers. The research was initiated against a backdrop of changing discourse around youth justice in Ireland with a shift towards prevention of offending and diversion from the criminal justice system. Locating crime and criminal justice contact within a biographical context indicated that participants' offending, and lives generally, was bound up in marginalised transitions to adulthood, and embedded within social and economic environments characterised by high deprivation. The findings support a further shift in focus towards addressing social injustice as a necessary prerequisite to tackle the origins of youth offending.

The pains of desistance

“…For example, while the young people spoke in-depth about the way in which spatial dynamics contributed to their isolation, the self-isolation of the men on licence was a result of institutionalization and a sense of surveillance as well as the desire to achieve act-desistance. Underpinning these pains of desistance and largely left unacknowledged in this article, is the context of inequality, structural limitations and poverty in which the participants in both groups had always found themselves (Corr, 2014; Farrall, 2014; Healy, 2010, 2014; MacDonald et al, 2011).…”

‘It’s harder to go to court yourself because you don’t really know what to expect’: Reducing the negative effects of court exposure on young people – Findings from an Evaluation in Scotland

“…(Davie, young person) Corr (2014) highlights the continuing 'resignation' (p. 265) of some young people to offend given 'constrained opportunities as a result of criminal justice contact'. This continued contact further reinforces the negative impact of 'labelling processes' which prevent young people from moving towards desistance (Corr, 2014).…”

“…(Davie, young person) Corr (2014) highlights the continuing 'resignation' (p. 265) of some young people to offend given 'constrained opportunities as a result of criminal justice contact'. This continued contact further reinforces the negative impact of 'labelling processes' which prevent young people from moving towards desistance (Corr, 2014). The Strategy for Justice in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2012) emphasises the need to divert young people from statutory measures, prosecution and custody through opening up opportunities for 'robust community measures' (p. 48).…”

“…In some cases, those who had been sent to a YOI on remand felt that the support from the WST enabled them to be released more quickly prior to their trial: I've been remanded … John (WST support worker) put an appeal in with my lawyer and they got me out or I would still be on remand now … so instead of a day it would have been about two and a half month I would have done until I was up at court … I was only in three days and I got out 'cause of John. (Davie, young person) Corr (2014) highlights the continuing 'resignation' (p. 265) of some young people to offend given 'constrained opportunities as a result of criminal justice contact'. This continued contact further reinforces the negative impact of 'labelling processes' which prevent young people from moving towards desistance (Corr, 2014).…”

Problematising Advanced Liberal Youth Crime Prevention: The Impacts of Management Reforms on Irish Garda Youth Diversion Projects

“…Although the individualising tendencies of Irish youth crime prevention and diversion policy have been recently acknowledged (Corr, 2014), this article suggests that the significance of the systematic encroachment of advanced liberal rationalities and the consequential implications for concrete interventions with young people considered at risk of (re)-offending, have so far been overlooked. The findings presented in this article were part of a larger study on Irish youth crime prevention policy and practice, framed in a post-structuralist theoretical framework.…”