Research indicates that language disorders and/or executive function impairments affect at least 50% of system-involved youth. Using a sensemaking framework, this interdisciplinary study explored experiences of juvenile justice personnel in recognizing and addressing language disorders and executive function impairments among the youth in their care. The study assessed perceptions of the prevalence of these impairments among youth and how personnel respond to youth with perceived impairments. Thematic analysis suggests that language disorders and executive function impairments are perceived to be common, and while personnel typically lack training in these areas, they rely on their experiential knowledge to meet the youth where they are.
This study examined psychological changes associated with a restorative-based diversion program implemented across five sites in 19 separate cohorts in South Korea. Using a single-group pre–post design, the study assessed victim awareness, acceptance of responsibility, positive self-concept, commitment to change, and offense-related negative emotions among youths in this offender-focused program. Participants showed significant increases in the first four domains, whereas offense-related negative emotions showed a more mixed pattern. Patterns of change were broadly similar across sites, although victim awareness varied across centers. The findings suggest that restorative-based diversion may support psychologically meaningful change among youths even without direct victim participation.
This systematic review synthesises available empirical studies exploring youth gangs, with a focus on the psychological and sociocultural factors that contribute to gang disengagement. The review followed the PRISMA guidelines and searches were conducted in six academic databases in February 2022. Eleven articles met the inclusion criteria for review. Psychological factors (e.g. disillusionment; maturation; experiences of victimisation and self-reflection) and sociocultural factors (e.g. positive and prosocial relationships, school commitment and positive school transitions and reduced unstructured activities) were highlighted as supporting youth gang disengagement. Given that there are numerous factors influencing youth gang disengagement, policy and practice should ensure that each are drawn upon to support disengagement. Implications for policy and practice will be discussed.
Arts-based approaches are used as a means of working with young people in youth justice systems in many jurisdictions, and pursue a variety of aims. However, studies which evaluate these programmes rarely consider their outcomes with reference to the children's rights standards under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Drawing on a study with young people and practitioners in Ireland, this article aims to examine how creative arts are used with young people within the Irish youth justice system, and to consider how these approaches create opportunities and challenges for the realisation of children's rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
There are many interventions for gang-involved youth, but little prior research has sought to understand gang specialty courts. This case study aims to do so by analyzing secondary and primary data from a gang specialty court in Texas. Results indicate that the court is high-intensity supervision primarily for minority youth. The program aims to impact the “push” and “pull” factors that lead to gang involvement and represents a departure from typical juvenile case processing by providing relocation services, adult mentors, and counseling. However, concerns related to the potential misidentification of youth and our limited understanding of causal effects remain barriers to assessing the program’s full impact.
