Nina Vaswani

Learning from failure: are practitioner researchers the answer when conducting research on sensitive topics with vulnerable children and young people?

While the ability, and indeed right, of children to be active participants in the research process has become better understood in recent years, concerns still persist when the research topic is particularly sensitive, or when the participants are vulnerable. This article provides an account of an ultimately unsuccessful research project aimed at exploring the conceptualisations and experiences of loss and bereavement of children in care. The literature relating to the practical, ethical and methodological considerations when conducting research on sensitive topics or with vulnerable children is reviewed and mapped against the author’s experience. Reflecting on the barriers to successful completion of the project the paper then discusses whether, despite well-documented limitations, many of these barriers to conducting sensitive research with vulnerable children may have been overcome by employing a practitioner–researcher approach to the methodology. By providing a rare reflection on a research ‘failure’, the paper is of relevance to students, practitioners and researchers alike.

Just a wee boy not cut out for prison: Policy and reality in children and young people's journeys through justice in Scotland

Youth Justice policy in Scotland, under the ‘Whole System Approach’ (WSA), progressively espouses maximum diversion, minimum intervention and the use of alternatives to custody wherever possible. Yet Scotland still has one of the highest imprisonment rates in Europe. To explore this discrepancy, this qualitative study used individual interviews and focus groups to document the experiences of 14 young males aged 16 and 17 in one Scottish young offenders’ institution on their journeys to custody. Their experiences reveal the significant challenges faced in understanding, navigating and complying with the justice system, and also indicate that the consistent implementation of WSA is problematic. The disconnection between the intentions of the WSA policy and the practical implementation means that these vulnerable young people are not fully benefiting from the WSA. This article therefore highlights important gaps between policy, practice and lived experience in youth justice in Scotland.

Bereavement among young men in prison

Bereavement is an inevitable part of life and learning how to cope with loss is therefore an important life skill for young people and adults alike. Wordens (1983) theory of bereavement processing, outlines four tasks that must be accomplished in order to adapt to the loss: acceptance; working through the pain of grief; adjusting to the new environment without the deceased and, lastly, forming a new and appropriate bond with the deceased that allows the bereaved to move on and reinvest their emotions. Incomplete grief tasks can cause complicated or unresolved grief (Shear and Shair, 2005) which occurs when normal grief symptoms become acute and persistent and interfere with day to day functioning. Complicated grief can result in physical symptoms and is linked to higher levels of suicidal ideation, increased risk of depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Kristjanson et al., 2006).