Direct Work with Young Offenders in the Community

Abstract

Children and young people grow out of crime. Adolescents change, sometimes very fast. A new job, a new teacher, a new girlfriend or boyfriend, or just growing up and recognising the consequences of one’s actions can make the difference. If we can hang on, and encourage other members of the network to hang on as well, then we can often see a child or young person through their offending and out the other side (Rutherford, 1986). It is within this situation of change and flux that we develop our face-to-face work with children and young people in trouble. Our responses to young offenders must reflect the reality of growth and change. The very different activities of playing Monopoly with a girl of 12½ and working with her as a young woman of 14 on the question of whether she should or should not embark upon a sexual relationship, are separated by a matter of months. We have to develop relationships in which youngsters feel free to be both children and adults without anxiety or shame. One of the most important things that adults can offer children and young people is a place where they can practice growing up while not having to be grown up.