Ecological Youth Justice

What is it about?

Young people involved in prolific and persistent offending very often have complex needs. Their challenging behaviour frequently manifests difficult circumstances, transitions and/or experiences going on in their lives. Understanding the social ecology of young people's offending behaviour can help youth justice workers more effectively engage young people in the context of their relationships with others, and help support young people's positive development. This paper explains how a social-ecological approach to understanding young people's offending can thus make youth justice intervention more effective.

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Why is it important?

The decline in numbers of young people in the formal youth justice system has revealed a 'complex core' of young people seen as difficult to engage and difficult to work with to reduce their offending. This situation requires new ways of thinking about effective practice with young people. While 'desistance-focused' approaches are increasingly directing attention to the social context of offending, we argue that these retain a focus on the young person as an 'offender' which can reinforce a negative identity and militate against positive identity development. A social-ecological approach offers a more positive framing of the young person, decentring them as the 'offending problem' and instead understanding their actions and interactions in the context of their relation to others. We show how, from this perspective, effective youth justice practice takes time and a positive, relational approach to working with young people.

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