criminal justice system

Article that highlights the views and advice of offenders in Scotland about what helps and hinders young people generally in the process of desistance, why interventions may or may not encourage desistance and what criminal justice and other agencies can do to alleviate the problems which may result in offending.

Paper that offers an ex-offender's viewpoint on the outlook of many young people today, or what is termed 'Social Deprivation Mindset'. The author also suggests that the criminal justice system should place most of their emphasis on changing the mindset of problematic individuals, rather than placing most of their efforts on challenging their re-offending.

The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime is a programme of research that aims to address a range of fundamental questions about the causes of criminal and risky behaviours in young people.

The core of the programme is a major longitudinal study of a single cohort of around 4,000 young people who started secondary school in Edinburgh in the autumn of 1998.
 

Factsheet that discussses the issue that adults and young people with learning and communication difficulties are over represented in prisons and the secure estate.

Very little is currently known about the practice of using offenders as peer mentors. This study seeks to begin to address this gap in our knowledge and has four key objectives: • to develop the evidence-base regarding the practice of using offenders in peer mentoring roles • to establish what works (and what does not) • to identify the individual and wider benefits and how these can be maximised in future provision • to develop principles of 'best practice'.