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Supporting children’s resettlement (‘reentry’) after custody: beyond the risk paradigm

  • Neal Hazel
    ,
  • Tim Bateman
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

In response to policy concerns in England and Wales and internationally, a considerable knowledge base has identified factors statistically associated with reduced recidivism for children leaving custodial institutions. However, despite resulting guidance on how to support resettlement (‘reentry’), practice and outcomes remain disappointing. We argue that this failure reflects weaknesses in the dominant ‘risk paradigm’, which lacks a theory of change and undermines children’s agency. We conceptualise resettlement as a pro-social identity shift. A new practice model reinterprets existing risk-based messages accordingly, and crucially adds principles to guide a child’s desistance journey. However, successful implementation may require the model to inform culture change more broadly across youth justice.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 71-89 (19 pages)

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Youth Justice (Volume 21, Issue 1)

Publication milestones

  • Accepted/In press - 13/04/2020
  • Published - 07/06/2020

Publication status

Published - 07/06/2020

ISSN

1473-2254

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/624022
  • Scopus: 85086021435

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