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This study aims to critically evaluate the trajectory of the “Child First” guiding principle for youth justice in England and Wales, which challenges adult-centric constructions of children (when they offend) as “threatening” and asserts a range of theoretical and principled assumptions about the nature of childhood and children’s evolving capacity.

Focussing on how Child First seeks to transcend the socio-historically bifurcated (polarised/dichotomised) thinking and models/strategies/frameworks of youth justice, this study examines the extent and nature of this binary thinking and its historical and contemporary influence on responses to children’s offending, latterly manifested as more hybridised (yet still discernibly bifurcated) approaches.

Analyses identified an historical and contemporary influence on bifurcated responses to offending by children in the United Kingdom/England and Wales, subsequently manifested as more hybridised (yet still discernibly bifurcated) approaches. Analyses also identified a contemporary, progressive challenge to bifurcated youth justice thinking, policy and practice through the “Child First” guiding principle.

By tracing the trajectory of Child First as an explicit, progressive challenge to previous youth justice thinking and formal “approaches”, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, they are the first to question whether, in taking this approach, Child First represents a clean break with the past, or is just the latest in a series of strategic realignments in youth justice seeking to resolve inherent tensions between competing constructions of children and their behaviour.

Remand prisoners (RPs) are known to be in a more vulnerable situation than those already convicted. Beyond the difficulties to adapt to the prison, RP also tend to experience tough circumstances due to the uncertainty of their future. This study aims to further test the psychometric properties of the Suicide Concerns for Offenders in the Prison Environment (SCOPE-2) in a sample of RP.

The authors have carried out a confirmatory factor analysis to test the psychometric qualities of the SCOPE-2. The authors tested the originally proposed two-factor structure composed of two subscales: optimism and protective self-worth. Also, the authors examined internal consistency through Cronbach’s alphas. Convergent validity was tested by correlational analyses between SCOPE-2 subscales and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) total scores. Finally, the authors have tested known-groups validity by carrying out discriminant analysis by testing the SCOPE-2 subscales’ ability to predict belonging to a group with previous suicide attempts.

The confirmatory factor analysis showed an acceptable model fit, even though the subscale “Protective self-worth” presented a less acceptable fit. The correlation analysis supported the convergent validity of the SCOPE-2. Both the “Optimism” and “Protective self-worth” subscales showed a positive correlation with the total scores of BSI. Finally, the Portuguese version of SCOPE-2 also showed known groups validity. Concretely, the “Optimism” scores revealed an acceptable predictive accuracy.

This study embraces important contributions to the practice as it was the first study to validate a measure to assess vulnerability for suicide and self-harm in male and female RP.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was the first study to validate an instrument to assess vulnerability for suicide and self-harm in both male and female pretrial detainees. Knowing their particular case, as well as the lack of responses for these individuals, it is particularly important to access suicide concerns that could precede suicide attempts.

This chapter argues that the concept of ‘mass supervision’, and indeed the concept of ‘mass incarceration’ from which it derives, is both quantitatively and qualitatively indeterminate when applied outside of the context of the US. However, the qualitative indeterminacy of mass supervision only holds so long as one treats the word ‘mass’ as being an analogy to mass consumption. This chapter therefore considers an alternative construction of ‘mass’ punishment in terms of mass production. Comparing the philosophies of production associated with Henry Ford and William Morris with the scholarship of Michel Foucault and Fergus McNeill reveals that mass supervision can authentically claim to be qualitatively ‘massive’, given the bespoke and one-on-one nature of traditional supervision. It is thus possible to speak coherently of ‘mass supervision’ in an international context, although this negative conception of a problem invites questions about the best solution that it generally leaves open.

This study aims to present the findings from an ongoing evaluation of a partnership project between a youth justice service and an independent charity that supports the involvement of children with lived experience of youth justice services in work with other young people who have offended and with policy makers and service providers.

The research involved the secondary analysis of project records and 15 semi-structured interviews with youth justice managers and practitioners and the charity’s staff as well as representatives from external organisations with whom it has worked. The analysis focuses on the nature of activities undertaken, the “theory of change” driving these activities, the perceived benefits of the work as well as some of the challenges involved.

The findings suggest positive outcomes for children in terms of increased engagement and participation, improvements in confidence and self-esteem and the development of personal, social, health and educational skills. The project represents a compelling example of what child-first diversion looks like in practice.

The article adds to existing knowledge of the benefits and challenges of involving children with recent experience of the youth justice system in service delivery and in co-production work with policy makers and service providers. It also offers insights into recent changes in youth justice policy in England and Wales, in particular the commitment to treating children as children first.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect gender has on the public perceptions of offenders with mental health issues. The authors aim to understand how offenders with mental illness are viewed by the public so future information and practices can be implemented to further educate on the topic of mental illness. Research has shown that mental health education can be a pivotal part of reducing risk and crime among the mentally ill population.

This study applies a quantitative design using vignettes. There were four scenarios, two as controls, and two experimental variables to examine how responses differed depending on gender and mental health. Twenty statements then followed each vignette and participants were asked to share how much they aligned their opinions with each statement on a five-point Likert scale. The sample was comprised of 80 participants.

The findings of this study largely support the relevant literature on the topic of gender and mental illness in offenders. Overall, the public was the least supportive of female offenders with mental illness, followed by male offenders with mental illness, then male offenders and lastly the most support was directed towards female offenders. Therefore, the present study’s initial hypotheses are also supported in that female offenders will garner a more sympathetic reaction than their male counterparts. However, if female offenders have mental health issues, they are viewed more negatively than males.

For future replication of this study, the authors consider that a larger and more gender-balanced sample size would increase the ecological validity of the findings. Despite this, the findings of this study do fall in line with the relevant literature. Therefore, suggesting perhaps that the gender of the sample does not affect the overall outcome of the results.

Education regarding mental health for the public should be implemented as research has found this effective in de-stigmatising and helping to create protective factors to reduce offending. More training is needed for professionals within the criminal justice system, including police personnel, to ensure they are better equipped to consider the needs and behaviours of mentally ill individuals. The authors suggest that mental health awareness should be taught as part of the education system in the UK to help de-stigmatise and share helpful resources. The prison system in the UK needs to be able to provide better treatment programmes for inmates with mental health issues as research shows this is the most effective form of treatment at reducing recidivism.

The social implications of this study are that it aims to understand perceptions of mental illness, gender and offending and, therefore, use the conclusions drawn to inform what is needed to improve perceptions if necessary. De-stigmatising and acknowledging mental illness can allow for better access to appropriate treatment. Facilitating reintegration back into society, and, therefore, increasing peer support which has been shown to reduce reoffending rates within the mentally ill population.

There are very few research studies looking at the impact of both gender and mental illness on how offenders are perceived. Most relevant research tends to either pick one or the other and therefore the present study is unique. In addition, most established research looks at the perception of a specific population. Whereas the present study has used a small but broad UK participant sample which is likely to be more generalisable. Finally, the results of this research have been able to both meet the aims of the study and accept the proposed hypotheses.

Drawing from interviews with individuals on parole, this chapter explores experiences of and responses to penal misrecognition. It documents that participants feel fundamentally misrecognised by the parole agency and penal state. They believe that the penal state views them as dangerous, defective and incapable of virtuous self-governance. Yet this is not how they perceive themselves. This leads to a delicate balancing act where participants refuse certain aspects of the penal state while accommodating others. On the one hand, individuals refuse parole’s misrecognition of them and reject the state’s authority to define who they are. On the other hand, they largely acquiesce to parole’s authority to supervise and regulate conduct. Turning to the concept of refusal highlights that individuals do not just attempt to resist penal power; rather, they flatly reject the state’s epistemic constructions. They do this by turning away from parole and by turning towards other forms of sociality beyond the penal state. This creates material and affective distance from parole and opens up space for self-recognition and for receiving positive recognition from others. In this way, individuals seek to minimise, move away from and/or bypass a penal intervention that is ostensibly designed to assist and support them.

This paper aims to present a case study analysing the reintegration programs of Malaysian violent extremist detainees and prisoners. It explores the ongoing challenges faced by these individuals as they strive to reintegrate and assimilate into society.

Qualitative data was collected through interviews with 12 violent extremist detainees and prisoners who had successfully reintegrated into society. The life course perspective was used as the analytical framework, and data analysis was conducted using ATLAS.ti.

The study revealed common challenges faced by the participants in gaining societal acceptance, dealing with stigma and achieving economic stability. The results also highlighted the difficulties of sustaining livelihoods due to heightened vigilance in the surrounding environment.

These findings enhance the understanding of factors influencing successful reintegration of people who were involved in violent extremism into mainstream society.

Government bodies, agencies or organisations and non-governmental organisations can implement these successful factors to prevent any issues of recidivism or resentment towards society.

This research contributes unique insights based on data from individuals who have undergone successful or partial successful reintegration. Detailed academic sharing of such information from a Southeast Asian country such as Malaysia is relatively scarce, given the specific procedures required for accessing such data.

This study aims to examine the scope and contribution of Forensic Clinical Psychology (FCP) advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) to criminal investigations in the UK to address the gap in current knowledge and research.

The 36 FCP reports reviewed were written between 2017 and 2021. They were analysed using Toulmin’s (1958) application of pertinent arguments to the evaluation process. The potential utility of the reports was analysed in terms of the advice provided.

Most of the reports involved murder and equivocal death. The reports focused primarily on understanding the offender’s psychopathology, actions, motivation and risk to self and others using a practitioner model of case study methodology. Out of the 539 claims, grounds were provided for 99% of the claims, 91% had designated modality, 62% of the claims were potentially verifiable and 57% of the claims were supported by a warrant and/or backing. Most of the reports provided either moderate or high insight into the offence/offender (92%) and potential for new leads (64%).

The advice provided relied heavily on extensive forensic clinical and investigative experience of offenders, guided by theory and research and was often performed under considerable time pressure. Flexibility, impartiality, rigour and resilience are essential prerequisites for this type of work.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically evaluate forensic clinical psychology reports from the NCA. It shows the pragmatic, dynamic and varied nature of FCP contributions to investigations and its potential utility.