This review focused on the evidence of participation of a particular group, that of children and young people (those under 18 years old) in, and with criminal justice research.

• Project Dates: Start date: February 2011 End date: October 2011
• Project Leader: Jill Clark
• Staff: Karen Laing
• Sponsors: AHRC Connected Communities programme

This review focused on the evidence of participation of a particular group, that of children and young people (those under 18 years old) in, and with criminal justice research. The challenges and issues of crime and the criminal justice system are those that effect all communities and all connections between them. In meeting these challenges, a perspective that has been largely but not wholly absent has been that of children and young people. Given that criminal careers seems to have origins in people’s early lives as young people and even earlier, and given that young people are some of the most numerous victims of crime, this omission is unhelpful to say the least in meeting the challenge of criminal justice. This review aimed to scope literature across a range of disciplines to look at which areas of the criminal justice literature has the involvement of young people. We are interested in a continuum of involvement from accessing of views to the participation of young people in solutions.

There has been no such mapping in the past. Such a review will be of interest to other issues that are experienced by all communities since we are likely to develop a methodology for exploring young person involvement in the literature. This review will consider literature across the disciplines in, for example, sociology, geography, social policy, law, education, community work but also into other disciplines such as medicine. Due to the breadth the review will be a scoping exercise to find out in what areas or research that deal with the criminal justice system we can find what level of child or young person involvement in the existing research. The review will focus on particular sub-themes which are pertinent to young people and these will include fear, perception and experience of crime (as both victim and perpetrator); views (and experiences) of sentencing and punishment; fighting crime and prevention and offender re-entry and resettlement. The views of children and young people are becoming increasingly valued in this area, however, this is only a recent development. The British Crime Survey (BCS) for example, is a face-to-face victimisation survey in which people resident in households in England and Wales are asked about their experiences of crime in the 12 months prior to interview. Respondents to the survey are also asked about their attitudes to crime-related issues such as the police, and criminal justice system, and about their perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour. Until recently the BCS did not cover crimes against those aged under 16, but since January 2009 interviews have been carried out with children aged 10 to 15. However, these remain ‘experimental statistics’ and are not presently included in routine British Crime Survey publications. Campaigning organisations such as the Children’s Society, Young Voice, Participation Works, Nacro and the Children’s Commissioner (11 Million organisation) and the Participation Unit (Save the Children) in Wales all strongly advocate the views of children and young people and there are several studies outcomes (and indeed reviews) cited which would form part of the review body of evidence, such as views of gun and knife crime.

A further interesting focus will be on the levels of involvement of young people in the research, ranging from being subjects of the research to being active partners in and with the research. Participatory research is one such level of engagement that will be a focus within the review. The underlying philosophies of participatory research are that it gives a ‘voice’ to those being researched, by questioning the acquisition and usefulness of knowledge, the power relationship between the researchers and the researched, and the stance of the ‘objective’ researcher (Clark, 2004). At an academic level, participative research challenges conventional ideas about what is useful knowledge, who should have that knowledge and how it should be produced and disseminated (Hobbiss et al. 1998). Participative research is thought to produce knowledge in a social constructionist way, that is useful to those people whose situation is being researched, alongside the dispersal of power that ‘professional’ researchers have within more traditional research processes (Dodson and Baker, 1995).

Aims and objectives.

The main aim of the review was to complete a scoping study of available material to identify, examine the extent, range and nature of research activity, to analyse and synthesise the findings and to identify the gaps in the existing literature. We explored the research question:

What kind of involvement has there been of children and young people in research within the criminal justice area?More specifically, the review explored the following questions:

• In what areas has there been no involvement of young people at all?
• Why do we involve young people? When do we involve them? and how do we involve young people appropriately?
• What are the ethics of involving young people? What are the issues of power and voice? What is the level of involvement, e.g. as researchers, as activists, facilitators, observers, etc.?

Description of activities.

The review took the form of a best evidence synthesis, a scoping review combining quantitative and qualitative methods. It looked at literature within the particular field of criminal justice.

Related Conference presentations

Clark, J. and Laing, K. (2011) 'The involvement of young people in research within the criminal justice area – what do we know and what do we need to find out?' Presented at the British Society of Criminology Conference, July 3-6, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

Related Publications

Clark, J. and Laing, K. (2012) The involvement of children and young people in research within the criminal justice area. Discussion Paper from the AHRC Connected Communities Programme Scoping Reviews.

For further information contact:
Jill Clark, Principal Investigator.
Email: Jill.Clark@ncl.ac.uk
Telephone: 0191 208 5637