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With nearly three-quarters of young people leaving custody re-offending within a year, it is clear that despite a decade of wide-ranging reforms and substantial investment, the youth justice system is still no closer to finding an adequate solution to the problem of young custody-leavers' high levels of re-offending. This thesis argues that at least part of the reason for this lies in the conceptions of subjectivity constructed by the dominant discourses in contemporary youth justice policy.

This study examines the adaptation pathways followed by the children of immigrants who arrived in Greece in the 1990s. Its main objective is to assess these youths' vulnerability to assimilation into the marginalised and deviant segments of the host-society. It draws primarily from a inner-city school-survey, interviews with secondary-school students of immigrant parentage, and young defendants of foreign nationality who were contacted at the Juvenile Court of Athens. The research examines, first, the extent to which immigrant-origin youths experience segregation along 'ethnic' lines, the gravity of ethnicised conflict in inner-city milieus, and the impact of victimisation by violent racism. Second, it explores young newcomers' involvement in violence, delinquency and drug use. Finally, it considers their treatment by the police, and their processing by the youth justice system. The study finds that the most serious forms of ethnicised violence and aggressive racism were related to an initial phase of contact, which was marked by widespread xenophobia and conflict between indigenous and foreign-born youths. Despite the hostile elements of the reception regime, there is no evidence that any sizeable group of immigrant-origin youths has adopted an 'adversarial outlook' which might resist interaction with broader society. By contrast, among the main determinants of immigrant-origin youths' over-involvement in some forms of property and violent offending - as suggested by data from both police records and self-report surveys - are their fast assimilation into the norms of the majority society, and their close and antagonistic interaction with same-age nationals. However, the research findings also suggest that the overrepresentation of foreign-born youth in official crime statistics is also due to the 'targeted' over-policing of delinquents with specific migrant-ethnic background. Overall, the findings indicate areas of concern but paint a rather different picture from that suggested by negative stereotypes. In practice, the risk that immigrant youths will become assimilated into marginalised segments of the host society is effectively limited by both the relatively small extent of migrants' residential segregation in Athens, and the small size of the criminal underworld.

Empirical studies have attempted to measure the relative deprivation-crime relationship with varying degrees of success. These have generally focused on examining 'actual relative deprivation' by employing quantitative methods to aggregated, area based data. Operationalising actual relative deprivation in terms of disparities in household income, these studies have attempted to show a relationship between income inequality and crime at the area level. From this they have assumed that those with the lowest incomes are most likely to perceive relative deprivation and are therefore more likely to engage in crime as a result. However, few studies have examined actual and perceived relative deprivation at the individual level. This thesis set out to explore at the individual level whether those experiencing actual relative deprivation are more likely than others to perceive relative deprivation and to determine whether actual or perceived relative deprivation (if either) is a good predictor of criminality. The study employed two methodologies to explore these issues. Secondary analysis of the 1998 Youth Lifestyle Survey was conducted and forms the core of the empirical work presented here. A study of 50 convicted burglary offenders was also undertaken to explore perceived relative deprivation. Both methodologies are limited by the problems associated with operationalising relative deprivation and these are detailed throughout the thesis. The results show that perceived relative deprivation (especially relative deprivation of leisure pursuits) would appear to be associated with involvement in crime more often than actual relative deprivation at the individual level. However, neither would appear to be a good predictor of criminality when compared to other, 'tried and tested' measures. For those offenders where perceived relative deprivation may be relevant, the thesis suggests that the offending peer group may provide a powerful comparative reference group while at the same time providing a means to resolve such experience through engaging in crime. Drawing on the findings, the thesis develops alternative theoretical frameworks for how relative deprivation may be associated with crime at the societal and individual level and provides a critique of these frameworks.

The Community Service Order (CSO) in Malaysia: An Exploration of the Perceptions and Experiences of Supervisors and Offenders. This qualitative study centres on the Community Service Order (CSO), a sentencing tool recently introduced in Malaysia which is used as an alternative to custodial punishment for young first time offenders (trainees) of minor crimes. The research uses in-depth interviews and questionnaires to document the experiences of a sample of youthful offenders and those who have completed the sentencing. The study also captures the views of the practitioners of CSO in Malaysia. The study shows despite its minor drawback there are many positive sides of CSO and its potential as practised in Malaysia. In its current form there are opportunities for improvement in terms of staff training and providing better supervision as well as rehabilitation of the trainees. The study provides glimpses into the criminal behaviour of the offending youth which could provide useful opportunity for future research and extension of CSO implementation. The findings of this study concur with similar studies on the effectiveness of CSO as a genuine alternative to imprisonment for young offenders such as in the case of countries like Singapore, England and Wales.

Predictors of serious criminality such as low autonomic arousal have been rigorously investigated. Other individual differences associated with criminality have, in comparison, been neglected in the scientific literature. Anecdotal evidence from practitioners, extreme cases presented in the media, and limited research on adults and undergraduates has suggested that 'sensational interests' (SI) may be a valuable predictor of criminality (SI are defmed as militaristic or occult interests). The present study is concerned with these interest patterns in normal adolescents. This thesis investigated the effects of sensational interests, intrasexual competition, and psychopathology on delinquency. The research also considered how personality interacted with these variables, and the impact these variables had on friendships and sociometric status. Study 1 employed a cross-sectional design using 645 adolescents. Structural equation modelling explained 43% of the variance in delinquent behaviour using the variables under investigation. The most significant variables were intrasexual competition and personality. SI and psychopathology were less predictive than anticipated. Study 2 considered sociometric status and friendships in 216 adolescents. Neither sociometric status nor number of friends was affected by SI or psychopathology. Of far greater importance were intrasexual competition and peer ratings of shyness. Study 3 was a one year follow-up which replicated the first study. This demonstrated SI varied over a one year period during adolescence and had no predictive value in terms of offending. The best predictors of future offending were intrasexual competition and personality. It is concluded that some previous accounts of SI have underestimated their complexity, with the result that SI have been unjustifiably associated with deviant, criminal behaviour. SI may have a role in criminality but their role is crucially dependent on personality and levels of mating effort. SIs alone should not be regarded'as criminogenic. The scope of the present study is assessed and directions for further research identified.

This thesis is made up of three papers. The first is a systematic literature review investigating the effectiveness of restorative justice interventions on reducing the reoffending rate of young people. The review consists of nine studies, the majority of which (N=8) found that there was no significant difference between the impact of restorative justice interventions, and other interventions targeting young offenders, on the rate of reoffending. One study found that restorative justice interventions had a significant positive effect at a three-year follow-up period. Following this, recommendations were made for future research. This included the exploration of the views of restorative justice Case Managers as to what factors are important in enabling restorative justice interventions to prevent young people reoffending. The second paper is a bridging document which explains how key decisions throughout the process of completing this piece of work were made, and makes explicit the journey from the Systematic Review to the Research Project. This includes the focus of the research, methodology, method and analysis. The bridging document also explores the areas of ontology, epistemology, reflexivity and ethical issues. The third paper describes a piece of empirical research. In line with recommendations in the Systematic Review, the views of restorative justice Case Managers from a Youth Justice Service were explored regarding the factors that they considered important in delivering a restorative justice intervention that is successful in reducing reoffending. A group interview was used to elicit the views of the Case Managers. Through applying a thematic analysis to the data, six themes emerged; learning, community, enabling change, a holistic approach, professional skill and overcoming systemic barriers. A model is proposed to highlight the relationship between dialogic space and the six themes identified through analysis, in supporting the competence, autonomy and relatedness of young people as conceptualised in self-determination theory. It was concluded that Educational Psychologists have an important role to play in supporting services to develop and deliver interventions with positive outcomes for children and young people. The benefits and limitations of using a group interview are discussed. Implications for the practice of Educational Psychologists, and suggestions for further research, are explored.

This thesis focuses on contemporary institutional and societal responses to the rising profile of inner-city youth gang violence to provide a recognition centred account of the retributive turn apparent in contemporary youth penal justice. The discussion is informed by the institutional determination that the inner-city gang youth belongs to a violent minority of serious offenders for whom penal administrators reserve their most punitive sanctions. Surveillance has become normalised as part of institutional aims to curtail this violent minority. In this pursuit, policing authorities are guided by an authoritative stereotype of the inner-city as a place apart, a place characterised by deviance. I seek, therefore, to explore how the focus on punitive sanctioning privileges curtailment goals ahead of concerns about dignity and respect, thus undermining the conditions of agency for the inner-city youth, in general. The analysis emphasises that relations of disrespect undermine the conditions of agency for inner-city youth as social agents. I argue this is made possible through policing surveillance practices which disrespects youths' rights and dis-esteems youth culture. To elucidate on these claims I rely on data gathered in inner-city communities in two jurisdictions: London, England and Toronto, Canada. I acquired this data through semi-structured interviews with advocates who work in the inner-city, with inner-city youth, in a civil society capacity. This data is evaluated alongside youth legislative material from both England and Canada.

Part one is a systematic literature review examining the relationship between poor attachment and psychopathic traits. The review is split into to two distinct areas: literature examining the parent-child relationship and psychopathy is discussed first, followed by research from the psychoanalytic field utilising object relations and Rorschach methods. Part two is an empirical paper exploring the relationships between poor parent-child attachment and callous-unemotional traits in a sample of high risk young offenders. This research was completed as part of a joint project (statement of joint research in appendix 1) with Ruth Dawson, which examined a range of risk factors associated with callous-unemotional traits in young offenders. Part three is a critical appraisal of the research process. It contains a brief outline of my interest in the research area and a discussion about the selection of measures of attachment, callous-unemotional traits and delinquency, paying particular the attention to issues around the use of self-report methods. It also includes a reflection on some of the issues associated with working in Secure Training Centres (STC’s) and some personal reflections on working with young offenders.