This thesis is concerned with the nature of contemporary youth penality in England and Wales. Some international comparative analysis suggests that over the last 40 years or so there has been a convergence towards a number of interrelated global trends in youth justice law, policy and practice leading to increased punitiveness, intolerance, control and imprisonment of children and young people in conflict with the law across the West. Yet other comparative evidence suggests that the picture is more complicated and that youth penality significantly varies over time and is spatially differentiated at the local, national and international levels. For example in England and Wales youth imprisonment rates significantly vary between Youth Offending Team (YOT) areas and since 2008 there have been significant reductions in the numbers of first time entrants into the youth justice system and young prisoners. Within this context - and even when socio-economic factors and crime rates are controlled for - similar YOT areas still appear to produce quite different sentencing outcomes or differential justice. This thesis explores the spatial and temporal nature of youth justice policy and practice and the cultural, political, social and economic contexts and conditions that give rise to increased rates of youth custody – penal expansion – or decreased rates of youth custody – penal reduction – at a local and a national level. It is concerned with unpicking the proximate influences on, or causes of, differential justice and/or justice by geography in England and Wales. Semi-structured interviews with youth justice practitioners across three pairs of matched YOTs with higher and lower rates of penal custody in England and Wales, together with a further series of interviews with national policy “experts” were conducted. The thesis builds upon and extends the argument that, at a national level, the direction of youth penality is subject to the vagaries of social, political and economic influences. At a local level it is argued that youth penality and the use of custody is influenced by differences in: local organisational and practice cultures; practitioner values; perceptions of the nature of youth crime; discretionary practices; and individual leadership and management. Ultimately, it is argued that in order to understand youth penality analysis needs to move beyond the national and focus on the influences and effects of the international, national and local that shapes youth penality at all levels.

A situation analysis of policies and practices related to sexuality was conducted in the state system for young offenders in Sao Paulo (FEBEM-SP) from October 2005 until February 2006. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods three separate but interlinking research studies explored aspects of sexuality and vulnerability in young people, the capacity of FEBEM-SP staff members in residential institutions to respond to aspects of sexuality and vulnerability and lastly the ideology and functioning of FEBEMSP itself. The research study was a collaborative effort between the London School of Hygiene (LSHTM), the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and the Population Council Brazil. A comprehensive literature review revealed a dearth of research on the sexual vulnerability of young people under the care of FEBEM-SP or other similar institutions. Furthermore, no previous research among this population has attempted to link the vulnerabilities of service users, service providers and the institution. These research gaps highlight the importance of this research and its findings. The results from this study indicate that the young men who participated in the study were highly vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Access to sexual and reproductive health services were severely constrained especially in residential institutions. The majority of young men were sexually active and reported high numbers of life time sexual partners and inconsistent condom use. Violence emerged as the major aspect of vulnerability in young men's lives. Racial discrimination emerged as another important aspect. The young men interviewed experienced violence in all spheres of their lives: in their homes, in their communities (school or FEBEM-SP) and in the street. At the time, FEBEMSP residential institutions were plagued by major security concerns including frequent rebellions and uprisings. Young men and FEBEM-SP staff were both victims and perpetrators of violence. In residential institutions there were reports of clandestine sexual activity (including sexual violence) with fellow residents, visitors and staff members. There was a taboo surrounding sexual violence. Constrained by an institutional policy of "no sex, no condoms", staff members felt unable to respond to young men's sexual and reproductive health needs. Staff members felt that their own needs for safety at the workplace were not met. Steps need to be taken to change the institutional ethos. However, the author recommends against the creation of institutional STI prevention programmes given the lack of institutional support and capacity for previous efforts. The author strongly recommends the implementation of a swift transition of young people from residential FEBEM-SP institutions to the probation system where they will have easier access to education, social assistance, leisure programmes and the municipal health services provided by the City of Sao Paulo.

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Young people with a background in public care are over-represented in the criminal justice system. The subject of the thesis concerns the relationship between these two systems. The main focus of this qualitative piece of research is an analysis of the cases of thirty young people who have had experience of both systems. Conducted on the site of a Welsh Social Services Youth Justice Team that—during the course of the fieldwork—was reconfigured as a Youth Offending Team, the research was guided by three related questions. Firstly, what was the nature of the relationship between the public care system and the criminal justice system Secondly, how did such discourses as 'welfare' and 'punishment' influence what happened to young people with care backgrounds in the youth justice system Thirdly, how did the youth justice reforms of the 1997-2001 Labour government impact on practice at ground level These questions were addressed by a combination of methods: semi-structured interviews with young people, parents and practitioners focus groups with professional staff observation and analysis of case files and other agency documents. The analysis identified a number of social and institutional processes that criminalised children in public care and accelerated their 'progress' through the criminal justice system.

This thesis explores the experiences of children in conflict with the law living in the Observation Home at Patna, the state capital of Bihar, India. The data was collected through participant observation, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews in consultation with the children, and 10 interviews were undertaken with stakeholders in the system. The study concentrates on the voices of children in order to develop an understanding of their experiences within the institutional environment and of their frames of reference in relation to different stakeholders as well as their own position in terms of participation and the working of the Juvenile Justice System. Based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Indian State is committed to implementing a child-friendly system and facilitating children’s right to participation. However, in practice we find a system where the children in conflict with the law are often labelled as 'criminals' when they come in the purview of the system and hence perceived as to deserve punishment rather than sympathy, especially if they are accused of serious offences. These children go through torture, inhumane treatment and Police brutality; the majority of them experience a lengthy trial, without sufficient legal assistance, information about the process and minimum scope for participation. Despite the elaborate international framework that exists for juvenile justice, the fact remains that there is a huge gap between the law and the real situation on the ground. The study aims to review the Juvenile Justice System, to contribute to a better understanding of the problems faced by the children in conflict with the law, and to investigate the obstacles to effective implementation with a particular focus on current practices. The state needs to go beyond just making policy-level changes based on international parameters or obligations and start to develop an effective system by bringing all the stakeholders together as a team committed to the achievement of a child- friendly system.

Educational problems have for many years been identified as an important component for young people brought before youth courts. One important effect of delinquent behaviour is the impact of social influences and educational settings are key places for adolescent peer relationships to develop. A large body of research has focused on identifying reasons for this association (Elliot and Menard, 1996 , Lotz and Lee, 1999, Megens and Weerman, 2010), however there has been a need for rich information to be obtained in this area in order to ascertain reasons and provide further information with regard to the relationship; what comes first, association with delinquent peers or delinquent behaviour? This research fulfils the need to explore youth offenders‟ perceptions of their educational experience and in particular, to explore whether they refer to social factors when describing the influences upon their behaviour. Social Identity Theory (SIT), Tajfel and Turner, 1979 was drawn upon when discussing the results. Seven youth offenders (aged 14 – 18) participated in the research and all of the participants were subject to court orders. The youth offenders were interviewed individually using semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed by using inductive Thematic Analysis and the main research question was explored by using a model of generative causation. A distinction was found in terms of how far social factors impacted upon perceptions of education, as opposed to how far social factors impacted upon delinquent behaviour. All of the youth offenders perceived social factors as important when determining reasons for delinquent behaviour at school, males more so than females. However negative perceptions of education (in terms of academic success and relationships with teachers) already existed prior to joining delinquent peer groups and so these groups served to influence behaviour only. Support for Social Identity Theory (SIT), (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) was found as the youth offenders seemed to choose friendship groups based on peers who held similar views of education in terms of its importance, and in this sense, the peer group served to strengthen pre-existing perceptions, rather than create them. Friendship groups were also chosen in order to avoid engaging in challenging educational tasks. Situational factors for these observations were identified and some of these factors provided support for SIT, others, such as perception of unmet educational needs, did not. Implications of these findings were discussed in terms of practice within schools and for Educational Psychologists.

This thesis explores the impact of resilience upon adjustment to custody and emotional well-being among incarcerated adolescent males in the United Kingdom. First, the identification and factorial validation of the Resilience Scale for Children and Adolescents (RSCA; Prince-Embury, 2006, 2007) was completed as a measure of resilience among incarcerated young males. This suggested that young males in custody had below average levels of resilience. Resilience was found to be associated with positive self-perceptions, positive attitudes towards staff members, along with higher levels of good adjustment, positive behaviour and compliance with rules, fitting with a strength-based approach to treatment planning with offenders. Resilience was also found to be associated with lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger, emotional distress and poor adjustment. Evidence emerged to support compensatory models of resilience, where resilience improved the prediction of emotional well-being beyond that predicted by custodial adjustment. Young people identified as vulnerable by prison staff were found to have significantly lower levels of resilience, although naturally occurring clusters of young people based on their resilience profiles did not emerge when model-based clustering methods were used. As a result, a Composite Measure of Resilience and Vulnerability (CM-RV) was developed that could be utilised in practice to assess markers of resilience and vulnerability among young people in custody. The CM-RV is shown to predict a number of indicators of resilience and vulnerability within custody and concurrent validation of the measure was demonstrated. The results of this thesis have a number of implications for practice. In particular, the importance of young people’s relatedness to others is highlighted throughout. Despite the inherent challenges of promoting relatedness within the prison environment, the significant role that it appears to play in helping young people to successfully adjust to the custodial environment suggests that due consideration needs to be given to both its assessment and promotion. The results would also support the design and implementation of resilience promoting interventions to help assist young people to adjust and engage positively during their time in custody.

Research has identified young offenders (YOs) in custody as having low language, literacy and communication skills. However, the language, communication and literacy difficulties of YOs who are on court orders is still unknown and more research is required to fully understand the relationship between language and offending behaviour. This study aims to investigate the association between language, communication, literacy, and behaviour in young offenders on court orders using; 1) appropriate and relevant quantitative methods of assessment to establish levels of performance and 2) qualitative interviews in order to examine participants’ views on how language limitations affect social interaction. To address methodological limitations in previous research, confounds were controlled for by comparing YOs to a control group of non-offenders (N=25) matched on Socio-Economic Status (SES), Non-Verbal IQ and Educational Attendance (EA). An opportunity sample of 57 young offenders (age range 12-18 years) was recruited from a Youth Offending Service in the UK. Inclusion criteria required all participants to have English as their first language and for none to be receiving any speech and language therapy. The YOs performed below the expected level on all the language assessments based on comparisons with normative scores. Logistical regression analysis revealed that they were also performing significantly lower than their matched control group of non-offenders, especially on the spoken language and literacy components. Age, gender, ethnicity and looked after status were not significant contributors to the relationship between language and offending status. Findings indicate that language, literacy, and communication performance is associated with offending behaviour in accordance with the social model of adaptation, independent of SES and EA. This highlights the importance of not only delivering language, literacy and communication support to this population, but also the need to collaborate and offer training to the range of staff working with YOs. The advantages of incorporating relevant and functional age appropriate language tests alongside interviews to gain a holistic view of language, literacy and communication needs in YOs are discussed.