What’s my age again?
When is a kid defined as a kid – and why is this inconsistent in different situations? CYCJ Associate David Orr unpicks the confusion surrounding the concept of childhood – and what this means for youth justice. In last week’s Panorama episode – When Kids Abuse Kids (BBC1, October 9, 2017) – an investigative light was […]
Read more
Reflections on secure care
Following the publication of CYCJ’s latest secure care report, Ellen Maloney reflects on her experiences of secure care, what’s changed and why giving young people a voice is so important in bringing about change. Twenty years ago, I entered one of Scotland’s secure units. I didn’t expect to see my 18th birthday, let alone my 35th […]
Read more
Joint enterprise – does the punishment fit the crime?
‘I deserved some form of punishment, yes, but I don’t deserve this.’ Dr Susie Hulley (University of Cambridge) and Dr Tara Young (University of Kent) discuss young people’s social relations and violence in the context of ‘joint enterprise’ and their new study on this. ‘I don’t regard myself as a murderer, I will never accept […]
Read more
An ACE up your sleeve?
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are increasingly associated with poor life outcomes. Nina Vaswani talks about what’s classed as an ACE (you might be surprised), with a focus on childhood bereavement and CYCJ research, findings from which will be published soon. What’s your ACE score? Do you know? I’m not telling you mine, but I will reveal […]
Read more
Buddy power
Rhiann McLean (Iriss) talks us through the Buddy tool, designed to help women entering the criminal justice system and to improve their experience. In 2016/17, I worked with the Glen Isla project, a women’s criminal justice centre based in Arbroath, to develop the Buddy tool. Buddy was co-designed by women and practitioners to improve the experience […]
Read more
Have your say on Scotland’s first sentencing guideline for judges
Gillian Thomson, Justice of the Peace member of the Scottish Sentencing Council, talks us through the public consultation on Scotland’s first sentencing guideline, and why public awareness and understanding is so important. Today (August 1) sees the launch of a public consultation on Scotland’s first sentencing guideline – the principles and purposes of sentencing – […]
Read more
The role of social work in tackling hate crime
With hate crime on the rise in Scotland and elsewhere, Rania Hamad undertook a literature review exploring hate crime, and the causes, motivations and effective interventions for criminal justice social work, which was published by CYCJ. Here, she summarises the key findings of her work, and the important role CJSW can play in working with […]
Read more
A journey through justice
Pamela Morrison talks us through CYCJ’s latest resource for young people, and why it was so important for them to be involved in the process. Following the completion of Youth & Criminal Justice in Scotland: The young person’s journey it was quickly established that the resource was not really accessible to young people. This highlighted […]
Read more
More alike than different
Debbie Nolan reflects back from a European wide seminar on how, regardless of different backgrounds, we are all responding to the same needs of young people involved in offending, and working towards the same goals. On June 6 and 7, I had the privilege of facilitating two workshops at the Confederation of European Probation International […]
Read more
