Susan Batchelor

'Prove me the bam!': victimization and agency in the lives of young women who commit violent offences

This article reviews the evidence regarding young women’s involvement in violent crime and, drawing on recent research carried out in HMPYOI Cornton Vale in Scotland, provides an overview of the characteristics, needs and deeds of young women sentenced to imprisonment for violent offending. Through the use of direct quotations, the article suggests that young women’s anger and aggression is often related to their experiences of family violence and abuse, and the acquisition of a negative worldview in which other people are considered as being ‘out to get you’ or ready to ‘put one over on you’. The young women survived in these circumstances, not by adopting discourses that cast them as exploited victims, but by drawing on (sub)cultural norms and values which promote pre-emptive violence and the defence of respect. The implications of these findings for those who work with such young women are also discussed.

Girls, gangs and violence: Assessing the evidence

Current evidence on girls and gangs in the UK is considerably hampered by a set of methodological issues. The first of these stems from the difficulties associated with defining what constitutes a ‘gang’ or being a ‘gang member.’ A second set of issues arise from the fact that much of the qualitative research in this area is conducted by male adult researchers utilizing male gang members and adult practitioners as their source of information about females. The findings of such studies are challenged by research with girls and young women, which demonstrates that group involvement can be both rewarding and destructive for girls.

Between Two Stools? Responding to Young Women who Offend

This article traces the emergence of the ‘problem’ of violent and disorderly young female offenders in Scotland, against a broader background context of the politicization of youth crime and major changes in youth justice policy post-Devolution. It draws attention to the limited empirical evidence about this group, and challenges perceptions about the nature and scale of violent offending by young women. Young women offenders fall between two stools. Policy responses to youth offending focus primarily on young men (ignoring gender) and policies in relation to women offenders fail to differentiate between older and younger women (ignoring age). Perhaps even more so than adult female offenders, young female offenders are an invisible minority whose offending pathways and distinctive needs have gone largely undocumented and unaddressed.

The myth of girl gangs

Susan Batchelor was one of the team who recently completed a study on girls and violence funded by the ESRC. But the findings were not what the media wanted to hear.

Chaos, containment and change: responding to persistent offending by young people

This article reviews policy developments in Scotland concerning ‘persistent young offenders’ and then describes the design of a study intended to assist a local planning group in developing its response. The key findings of a review of casefiles of young people involved in persistent offending are reported. It emerges that youth crime and young people involved in offending are more complex and heterogeneous than is sometimes assumed. This, along with a review of some literature about desistance from offending, reaffirms the need for properly individualised interventions. Studies of ‘desisters’ suggest the centrality of effective and engaging working relationships in this process. However, these studies also re-assert the significance of the social contexts of workers’ efforts to bring ‘change’ out of ‘chaos’. We conclude therefore that the ‘new correctionalism’ must be tempered with appreciation of the social exclusion of young people who offend.

Safeguarding children's interests in welfare proceedings: the Scottish experience

Against a backdrop of new arrangements for representing childrens interests in England, this paper examines the role of ‘safeguarders’ in Scottish childrens hearings. Safeguarders may be appointed by childrens hearings and sheriffs when it is in the childs interests to do so. Recent research conducted by the authors revealed that the performance of most safeguarders is very well regarded. However, the arrangements for recruitment, training, monitoring and support are highly variable and often limited. The independence of safeguarders is widely supported. Certain aspects of the organization of the service and of the processes for allocating individual safeguarders to particular cases raise questions about consistency and independence.

City as Lens: (Re)Imagining Youth in Glasgow and Hong Kong

In recent years, a paradox has emerged in the study of youth. On the one hand, in the context of the processes of globalization, neoliberalism and precarity, the patterning of leisure and work for young people is becoming increasingly convergent across time and space. On the other hand, it is clear that young people’s habits and dispositions remain deeply tied to local places, with global processes filtered and refracted through specific cultural contexts. Against this backdrop, drawing on an Economic and Social Research Council/Research Grants Council (ESRC/RGC)-funded study of contemporary youth in Glasgow and Hong Kong, this article seeks to explore the role of the city as a mediating lens between global forces and local impacts. Utilizing both historical and contemporary data, the article argues that despite parallels in the impact of global forces on the structure of everyday life and work, young people’s leisure habits remain rooted in the fates and fortunes of their respective cities.

In the footsteps of a quiet pioneer: revisiting Pearl Jephcott’s work on youth leisure in Scotland and Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Pearl Jephcott’s (1967) research on Scottish teens, Time of One’s Own, is one of the first sociological studies of leisure in the postwar period. This research is remarkable not only for its emphasis on ‘ordinary’ young people but also for its ambitious and eclectic research design, which incorporates field research, sample surveys and task-based participatory methods. The (Re)Imagining Youth team revisited Jephcott’s Scottish research alongside her survey of The Situation of Children and Youth in Hong Kong (1971) as part of a contemporary study of youth leisure and social change. This paper outlines our attempt to reimagine Jephcott’s work for the contemporary context, highlighting the ways in which her method was both a product of its time and ahead of its time.

(Re)Politicising Young People: From Scotland’s Indyref to Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement

In 2014, two independence movements involving young people emerged in two very different settings. In Scotland, the Referendum on Independence from the United Kingdom extended the franchise to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote for the very first time. In Hong Kong, the Umbrella Movement engaged young people in direct action to secure universal suffrage. Drawing on a wider study of young people and social change, this chapter explores the rise of nationalist politics and independence in times of crisis, highlighting similarities and differences in young people’s political participation in these two distinctive contexts.

Reducing reoffending: Lessons from psychotherapy and counselling

Focuses on processes and interventions aimed at reducing offending and assisting offenders to reintegrate and desist from crime. A recent strand of inquiry is concerned with research on very early preventative interventions and research on risk factors. Summarises some findings on the effectiveness of psychotherapy and counselling in reducing problematic behaviour and supporting the change process.