‘Child First’ and desistance

Hazel, Neal; Case, Stephen

Abstract

The neoliberal focus on crime reduction has meant that many youth justice systems see ‘desistance’ from crime as their primary goal. This chapter contends that their attempts to address children’s offending directly and literally has promoted a reductionist, negative-facing approach based on a flawed and decontextualised evidence base. In contrast, contemporary research in youth justice, summarised as the Positive Youth Justice (PYJ) model, emphasises the importance of a more holistic approach primarily promoting positive child outcomes generally, with desistance as a specific secondary outcome. This chapter argues that, in order for PYJ to gain traction within the neoliberal criminal justice discourse, it requires an explicit understanding of how positive child outcomes lead to desistance from crime. To this end, it proposes a ‘theory of change’ for PYJ drawn from the Constructive Working (CW) framework, which highlights the central importance of facilitating children’s ‘pro-social identity’. Although developed from empirical research with young people, CW mirrors the established concept of ‘secondary desistance’ in the adult literature. However, to be appropriate across youth justice, it is necessary not to assume that the child has an established pro-offending identity from which to shift but instead emphasise the role for all agencies in ‘developing’ each child’s pro-social identity. In England and Wales, amalgamating PYJ and CW into a four-tenet principle called ‘Child First’ has already shown potential in allowing traction for progressive, evidence-informed, youth justice practice within a neoliberalist political context.

Citation

Hazel, N., & Case, S. (2024). ‘Child First’ and desistance. In Desistance and Children (37-56). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447369127.ch002

• Publication Date: May 31, 2024
• Deposit Date: Aug 27, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 25, 2024
• Publisher: Policy Press
• Pages: 37-56
• Book Title: Desistance and Children
• Chapter Number: 2
• ISBN: 9781447369127; 9781447369110; 9781447369110; 9781447369134; 9781447369127
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447369127.ch002
• Keywords: Child First; pro-social identity; youth justice; desistance; Positive Youth Justice; Constructive Working; Constructive Resettlement; juvenile justice
• Publisher URL: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781447369127/ch002.xml