Disempowerment, Responsibility and Difference

Abstract

As expected, given previous research (Sinclair and Gibbs, 1998; Darker, Ward and Caulfield, 2008), all except two of the young people interviewed had experienced some degree of contact with the youth justice system prior to entering residential children’s homes. This ranged from being made the subject of low-level pre-court disposals such as a Youth Caution, to being sentenced to a period of imprisonment. This chapter will begin by exploring the young people’s their accounts of how and why they began to get into trouble and the implications that this has for future offending in the residential care context. Their beliefs regarding the reasons that they were taken into care will also be highlighted, with consideration given to how this might impact upon subsequent self-perception and behaviour.