Researchers at the University’s Vauxhall Centre for the Study of Crime have investigated how children in care are disproportionately represented in the youth justice system, and in child prisons in particular. This two year research project was led by Dr Tim Bateman, a specialist in youth justice and youth crime, and funded by the Nuffield Foundation – an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance social wellbeing.
The ‘Pathways of Incarcerated Children in Care’ project studied a mixed group of children sentenced to custody from South and West Yorkshire, half of whom were in the care system. The research team explored their journeys into, through and out of custody, and found that the children’s behaviours often could be understood as strategies that disadvantaged and vulnerable children develop in order to survive hostile environments.
While all those sentenced to custody shared characteristics (including extremely troubled backgrounds and problems at home and school), there were differences between children in care and those who were not. The additional challenges encountered by these children, especially those placed in care a long way from their home community, heightened the risk that they would become entangled in the youth justice system and – when sentenced to custody – would be more likely to have negative experiences within the custodial estate and return to an unsettled lifestyle upon release.
Main Findings:
- Analysis of 303 children sentenced to custody over a four year period, indicates that 17% were currently looked-after at the point they received their sentence. While all of the children displayed considerable needs, those in care were particularly vulnerable on a range of indicators.
- On release, rates of breach for non-compliance with post-custody supervision, and the associated risk of being returned to custody, were higher for looked-after children,reducing the prospects of successful resettlement.
- While all those sentenced to custody shared characteristics that included extremely troubled backgrounds, experience of high levels of instability at home, and limited engagement with education, there were, sometimes subtle, differences between looked-after children and those who were not. The additional challengesencountered bythe former group, partly attributable to background but also to the care experience itself,exacerbated the risk that they would become entangled in the youth justice system and, when sentenced to custody, would experience deprivation of liberty and resettlementas more disruptive.
- All children exhibited strategies for survival at each stage of their journey, but a focus on survivingtended to become an integral part of the identity of children in care.
- The perceived need for looked-after children to be self-reliant because of what they understood to be an absence of adequate support from adults,professional and familial, meant that they did not just behave in ways that ensured their survival in whatever context they found themselves; they were also more likelythan other children to develop, what we term, a ‘survivor mentality’.
- Children in care were not lacking in resilience: seeing oneself as a survivor requires considerable strength. But this form of self-reliance encouraged a focus on the here and now rather than facilitating a future orientationwhich aids desistance. The mechanisms that reinforced such identities,the manner in which children experienced them, and how agencies might best respond, varied at each stage of their journey.
- The pathway to custody was, for most children,associated with spending considerable periods out of education and away from home. The adoption of a ‘street lifestyle’ frequently involved forms of ‘survival’ behaviour –such as robbery, or fighting to maintain status -that brought them into contact with the criminal justice system and an enhanced risk of custody.
- *Most children, particularly those in YOIs,had a negative experience of custody which they regarded as an episodeto be endured. Contact with families and friends was restricted and children complained about what they saw asthe excessiveuse of isolation, often involving confinementto theircells for much of the day.
- Children in carefelt particularly isolated because a lack of familial support, confirming a perception that being looked-after set them apart from other children. They adopted a distinct strategy for surviving custody, fighting to maintain status and avoid victimisation, rather than keeping their head down. This preference, a reflection of a survivor identity, led toincreased restraint and segregation.
- The transition from custody to the community provided a window of opportunity for positive change for some children,but was challenging to most. The challenge was greatest where settled accommodation or family support was lacking, factors more likely to impact children in care, therebyincreasing the risk of a resumption of a‘streetlifestyle’, punctuated by further brushes with the law.
- Children in care were more likely than their peers to be breached for failure to comply with post-custody supervision and were, therefore, at a higher risk of being returned to custody.
Recommendations:
- *The report recommends that local agencies consider how best to support children who adopt a street lifestyle,ensuring they have access to constructive activities and are re-engaged in education or training.
- *Reducing the number of looked-after children who go missing,and drift towards the street, is an urgent necessity. Children’s services must meet thestatutory duty to secure sufficient accommodation for children in care within the local authority area wherever possible, developing additional ‘in house’ residential children’s homesas required.
- *The report proposes that to address the perceived isolation of looked-after children in custody, professionals prioritise ‘informal’ contact, including regular visiting, not linked to statutory planning processes,in order to demonstrate what children see as alevel of genuine care.
- *Children in care should be involved, from an early point in their sentence, in discussions about where they will live so that they feel assured that suitable accommodation will be found, perceptions of the need for self-reliance are alleviated, and the potential for a focus on longer-term planning and the development of future aspirations isenhanced.
- *The report proposes that youth offending teams monitor breach to determine whether looked-after childrenare disproportionately subject to proceedings for non-compliance. A presumption against breach should be introduced for children in care.
- *The report recommends that practitioners with this group of children consider how to apply the BYC model by building on the resilience associated with being self-reliant while recognising that where a survivor mentality becomes part of a child’s identity, fostering a sense they can also rely on others may be key to enabling the development of positive future aspirations and enhancing the prospects of desistance from offending.