The lived experience of juvenile offenders within the criminal justice system

Abstract

This study examined how offenders presently serving a court sentence in the community described and reflected on their past experience as minors in contact with the criminal justice system, from arrest to adjudication and post-adjudication. This study also examined the impact that this system may potentially have on the participants’ identity, criminalisation, and criminal career pathways - from onset to maintenance, escalation and desistance/re-offending. This study adopted a qualitative research approach utilising Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to analyse the in-depth narratives obtained. A total of six participants (four males and two females, all over 18 years, with a history of juvenile offending and serving a current community-based sanction either a probation order, a combination order, a treatment order, or parole) were recruited from the Department of Probation and Parole, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews. This study suggests that arrest, court conviction and sentence to incarceration can have adverse consequences on young offenders limiting their prospects towards finding employment, suitable peers and establishing significant relationships. This implies that the response of the criminal justice system could have stigmatising effects on young offenders impacting their persistence or desistance from crime. The risk factors that contributed to their criminal involvement consisted of adverse childhood conditions; the response of the criminal justice system; stigmatisation; trust and mistrust; escalation in the criminal career, drugs and substance abuse; and maturation and desistance. Then, the protective factors identified for desistance, were positive relationships and work, point towards less punitive and stigmatising forms of punishment for juvenile delinquency.