Anne Robinson

Enforcement and compliance: critical practices for community rehabilitation companies and the new NPS?

Efforts to secure compliance have always been a core element of probation practice, although compliance has been constructed in diverse ways and promoted through different means throughout its history. This article takes a brief historical perspective and reviews recent research on enforcement practices and developing understandings of compliance. These guide a critical discussion of the practices that might develop as responsibilities for enforcement are divided between the new National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) under the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda, highlighting inevitable tensions and challenges, and anticipating how inter-agency practices might shape the ongoing construction of compliance. Charging more than one agency with responsibilities in relation to enforcement is tricky and creates risks in terms of legitimacy, credibility and justice. On the whole, future prospects seem difficult, but not hopeless and, in particular, there are examples of positive practices in probation and youth justice for the NPS and CRCs to draw upon as they develop their inter-agency structures and processes. Elsewhere, initiatives in problem-solving courts, focused, for example, on drug users, may also give indicators of constructive ways forward.

Foundations for youth justice : positive approaches to practice

Section 1: Theories and concepts of youth and justice Growing up in the modern world Young people at the margins Youth justice histories Youth justice - present and future Section 2: Issues for young people The transition from school to work Sex and relationships Mental health and well-being Growing up in public care Telling tales of alcohol and drugs The anti-social behaviour agenda Section 3: Issues for youth justice practice Aspects of risk Safeguarding young people Collaborative and multi-agency working Prevention and pre-court intervention Challenging practice in the courts Restorative justice and the referral order initiative Working with young people on community orders Imprisoning young people.

The Resilience Motif: Implications for Youth Justice:

Resilience has not impacted greatly in youth justice to date, yet holds great promise for practice. This article explores salient features of thinking around resilience, in particular Michael Ungar’s research on how young people search for power and identity using whatever resources they can access. This perspective reframes many behaviours conventionally viewed as deviant or risky, arguing that a young person ‘behaving badly’ may at the same time be drawing on strengths, skills and capacities. The opportunities and challenges for practice lie in collaborative work to enable young people to use these strengths, skills and capacities to create more positive futures.