Spencer Millham

Secure accommodation for very difficult adolescents: some recent research findings

The appropriate use of secure accommodation for very difficult adolescents continues to cause concern. Research in the 1970s highlighted the variety of young people admitted to secure units and the difficulties of fashioning treatment programmes. As a result, gate-keeping and admission criteria have been tightened. Recent research has further clarified the needs and problems of young people in secure units and has highlighted the relationship between provision offered in child-care, penal and health services. New research findings, particularly those arising out of studies of young people in Youth Treatment Centres, are discussed in the light of these issues.

Juvenile unemployment : a concept due for re-cycling?

Young peoples increasing failure to find jobs has returned the concept of unemployment to significance. In intervention with deprived and delinquent youngsters, unemploymentnow enjoys a significance that has escaped it for several decades. Work has social and psychological importance for young people and it also has dynamic implications within their families which are largely ignored in assessment. Getting and keeping adolescents in work should receive some of the attention we reserve for the symptoms of maladjustment.

The Research Background to the Law on Parental Access to Children in Care

Abstract This paper highlights some significant issues regarding the family links of children absent in local authority care raised in recent child-care research. It shows how research and legislative change can be linked constructively. The relevant sections of the Children Act 1989 reflect the successive efforts of the Department of Health to incorporate research messages into child care policy and practice with regard to providing a satisfactory legal framework for managing the family links of children in care.

The characteristics of young people in youth treatment centres: A study based on leavers from St Charles and Glenthorne between 1982 and 1985

Abstract This paper presents results from part of the Dartington Social Research Units study of the care careers of very difficult and disturbed young people. It looks at the background characteristics of all young people who left the youth treatment centres during the four years between 1982 and 1985. It explores their personal characteristics, reasons for admissions to a youth treatment centre, care and placement histories, family circumstances, living situations, assessed needs, educational experiences and situations on leaving. This analysis provides information about young people who enter long-term, secure treatment facilities and fashions definitions and classifications to improve comparisons of institutional populations.

Children's Return from State Care to School

abstract Preoccupation with childrens separation from and return to the family should not encourage us to ignore the wider contexts of their experience. Many children rejoining their families have to enter new schools. Sometimes, the stigma and insecurities of the past make these negotiations difficult for the young person, particularly if compounded by unease and tensions within the family. As schooling is central to so many aspects of a childs life, its neglect is likely to cause widespread problems for returning children.

Applying Restitutive Justice to Young Offenders: Observations from the United Kingdom

The Dartington Social Research Unit has been studying difficult and disturbed offenders for over 25 years. Our emphasis has been on young offenders and, as such, we are not qualified to comment on adult criminals or the situation of victims of crime. The Unit is largely funded by Government, and we aim to produce studies that help in the development of legislation, policy and practice. During the last 25 years, considerable steps forward have been taken to improve the juvenile justice system in England and Wales. An enormous residential training school system has been dismantled and most offenders are now dealt with at home in the community (Millham, Bullock, & Cherrett, 1975). The use of secure accommodation has diminished markedly and the number of young people in youth custody is also in decline (Millham, Bullock, & Hosie, 1978). In this paper, we seek to apply the messages from our research studies to the questions about the organisation of welfare intervention in the field of restitutive justice. We shall look first at the juvenile justice system as a whole and consider ways in which mediation applies to different groups of young offenders. We shall then look at the special case of extremely difficult and disturbed young people who defy efforts at prevention and for whom mediation alone would be an unsatisfactory approach.

The therapeutic implications of locking up children.

The number of juveniles admitted to secure institutions has increased considerably during the last decade. The reasons for this are complex. While there are long historical antecedents for such interventions, there is also clear evidence that our approach to difficult adolescents has become less benign. The therapeutic implications of placing young people in security are discussed in relation to the clients themselves, to their care givers and to the wider provision of services for troubled juveniles.