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The purpose of this paper is to present research which evaluated the impact of Dispersal Orders in an English town.

The study used a mixed method design to, qualitatively, explore the impact of the intervention on young people and, quantitatively, the impact on recorded crime/anti-social behaviour.

The use of Dispersal Orders in the town being studied highlighted a number of issues detrimental to young people. Powers appeared to be used to control the congregating rather than anti-social behaviour of young people and their use could increase young peoples’ feelings of vulnerability.

The findings suggest that Dispersal Orders (and the newer Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs)) may be ineffective if they are used without the focus of a specific anti-social behaviour issue.

The findings suggest that the use of Dispersal Orders to deal with non-anti-social behaviour issues are likely to alienate young people and have the potential to inadvertently place them at further risk. They also suggest that the PSPO could very well exacerbate the substantial issues which have been identified in the present research.

This research is original and suggests that the negative findings of earlier pieces of research into Dispersal Orders can be replicated in very different geographical environments and in areas with low levels of general deprivation where no substantial anti-social behaviour issues were identified. Furthermore, it uses original data to contextualize contemporary developments in anti-social behaviour, namely the introduction of PSPOs.

The purpose of this paper is to educate forensic interviewers about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and tools for interviewing youth with ASD when there are concerns of child sexual abuse (CSA).

Research is reviewed to discuss risk factors for CSA in youth with ASD, why CSA is often not recognized and research-based strategies for forensically interviewing youth with ASD.

Youth with ASD are at increased risk of CSA compared to neurotypical peers, but recognition of CSA in youth with ASD can be difficult. Forensic interviewing strategies can help interviewers obtain reports of CSA from youth with ASD.

Given the increase in prevalence of ASD and the increased risk of CSA, forensic interviewers need to have information about ASD, about why CSA may not be recognized, about risk factors for CSA and, especially, about how to accommodate for ASD when conducting forensic interviews.

This paper provides a novel framework for considering evidence-based practices for forensically interviewing youth with ASD when there are concerns of CSA. Specifically, this paper includes multiple, but related areas, in one article including research related to ASD, risk factors for CSA in those with ASD, obstacles to identifying CSA and the implications of this research for specific strategies regarding how to forensically interview youth with ASD when there are concerns of CSA.

The purpose of this paper is to present an empirically anchored, practical clinical approach that simultaneously considers risk factors for the individual and family, when assessing sexually abusive individuals of all ages and genders.

Identified were specific, empirically based variables on sizable validation and cross-validation samples (i.e. combined total of over 2,000 male and female youth, ages 4-19) that were directly related to risk for coarse sexual improprieties and/or sexually abusive behaviors.

Clinical considerations are offered regarding developmental domains not often considered and/or studied when working with sexually abusive individuals of all ages and genders. That is, attention is focussed on incorporating assessment of sexual development, erotic development, and romantic development and interventions to decrease intimacy deficits and thus improve skills in relationships. Specific strategies for utilizing the approach in assessment and treatment are described.

Overall the paper synthesizes the importance of the individual and family history with regard to those elements related to family history, sexual abuse, and intimacy deficits. The paper provides clinical, practice application with regard to assessment and risk variables in sexual abuse cases.

The manuscript introduces an original concept, the Family Lovemap with empirical data to support its underpinnings. The overall family system is viewed as a living sexual organism with its history that formulates the individual's unique Family Lovemap. The family is seen as a changing and evolving psycho-sexual system. Discussed is the impact of Family Lovemap onto the individual, providing an avenue of consideration in assessment and treatment, specifically, with issues related to bonding, attachment, and sexual development. On a broader scope, it offers more a “collective view” of a sexually abusive individual when doing a risk assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the generalized self-efficacy (GSE) of youth in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Youth issues have been at the forefront of political discourse in the region and often youth are presented in the media as having fundamental deficits, which are tied to growing inequality and lack of social mobility. This study offers more perspective of the characteristics of Hong Kong youth to contribute to the literature as well as influence the discourse on youth and youth issues.

The study is based on a community survey of youth in the New Territories of Hong Kong with over 2000 respondents. The survey was based on a valid and reliable instrument on GSE to measure the GSE of youth in the region. GSE characteristics are analyzed using descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s α for internal consistency, factor analysis to verify the dimensional nature of the scale. The relationships between GSE and age and gender were analyzed using multiple linear regression model.

Findings indicated that despite a slightly higher, yet statistically significant GSE scores for females, and little impact of age on GSE, Hong Kong youth have normal levels of GSE. This finding offers a counter to the pathologizing of youth’s individual characteristics, and implies the need for a shift in discourse toward more targeted examination of the structural issues that act as barriers to social mobility of today’s young people in Hong Kong.

The study focused on GSE, which is correlated with other constructs such as confidence, but not established in causal relationships with other variables. More research is needed to link GSE and confidence in these groups, as well as links to structural issues that may impact various youth characteristics.

The study offers insight, which could be used to inform Non-Governmental Organizations and educational programs targeting disadvantaged youth. Programs that pathologize youth characteristics may be able to employ the findings to shift approaches toward more targeted skills-building as well as programming addressing structural barriers.

The study offers a counter-narrative to the contemporary deficit view of today’s youth in Hong Kong. This study provides basis for shifting the discourse away from situating social issues in Hong Kong at the individual level with youth, and toward structural, societal level influences on inequality and social mobility of younger generations.

Although GSE has been measured across the globe, this study sought to target the GSE of a group that has been framed in the media and political discourse as lacking in a variety of important characteristics. This study’s findings offer a counter-narrative to the generally negative attitudes toward youth as shy, lacking in confidence, antisocial and without a strong work ethic.

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.

The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers’ constructions of youth inform their text selections, particularly as they relate to a problematic author.

As part of a larger, national study, the authors use interview data from 18 participants – 9 who still teach and 9 who no longer teach Alexie – to consider how teachers’ constructions of youth play roles in their decisions to teach or avoid complex and controversial authors and topics, specifically the work and life of Sherman Alexie in the #MeToo era.

Findings suggest teachers who constructed youth through asset-based frameworks – as complex and capable – were likely to keep teaching Alexie or have conversations about the #MeToo movement. Teachers who constructed students in deficit ways, as “not ready,” harkened back to Lesko’s (2012) critique, and were more likely to either remove Alexie from the curriculum entirely or engage students in conversations about the text only, leaving Alexie’s life out of the classroom.

Building on Lesko’s work on constructions of adolescence and its intersection with Petrone et al.’s youth lens and Critical Youth Studies (e.g., Petrone and Lewis, 2021), this study describes the ways in which teachers’ views of students served as rationales for their teaching decisions around whether, if or how to include the works and life of Sherman Alexie.

This paper aims to explore how peer support can support a combined Child First, trauma-informed and restorative approach for youth justice. While other scholars have identified clashes between these approaches, particularly between Child First and restorative approaches, a focus on reparative practice with peers has been under-explored as a more child-centred model for reparation-focused work.

We draw on qualitative data from interviews and surveys undertaken with young people and parents/caregivers in a London youth offending service (YOS). The data was part of a broader mixed-methods study in the YOS that used observational methods alongside surveys and interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of its model of practice. Peer support emerged as a theme.

Participants expressed the desire to see young people working and volunteering in the YOS and felt this would help make it a safe and non-threatening space. Young people who had completed their time with the YOS saw themselves as role models with the insight and skills to support others. These young people expressed a strong desire to work in the YOS and, in some cases, to develop long-term careers supporting young people.

Our research challenges the notion that young people who have been involved in crime struggle to empathise, providing rich examples of their empathic understanding for peers. Peer support opportunities could offer a reconceptualisation of restorative practice that is Child First and trauma-informed. Such opportunities would benefit both the young people being supported and those offering support, building a co-produced approach that is directly informed by the expressed needs and desires of the young people.

The purpose of this paper is to describe physical and mental health characteristics of incarcerated youth both internationally and in New South Wales (NSW) Australia. To outline current practices in the provision of mental and physical healthcare for incarcerated youth internationally and in NSW.

Population relevant literature will be outlined as applicable. Health service delivery will be discussed, with an emphasis on the experiences of NSW physical and mental health service provision for incarcerated youth.

This paper illustrates that in NSW there was a parity of provision between physical and mental healthcare, though there were deficits in what should ideally be provided. Internationally there was clear evidence that current minimum standards of healthcare in both physical and mental healthcare domains remain unmet.

Provision of physical and mental healthcare for incarcerated youth warrants global improvement. Further research into current provisions, across jurisdictions and subsequent standardisation of practice, will improve health outcomes for this vulnerable group.

This is the first paper to describe mental and physical healthcare provision in NSW for incarcerated youth framed within the broader context of international health service provision for similar populations.

The youth leadership development program is an opportunity to establish best practices for the development of youth and of the wider community. Based on underpinning research related to social cohesion and social capital, the purpose of this paper is to focus on connectedness is consistent with the work of Putnam (Bowling Alone).

Reflecting the multi-level character of all complex problems and also the need to explore common values, social networks and problem-solving mechanisms, the initial approach was a pre- and post-activity survey for participants, and focus groups with elders and parents. The pilot survey, however, revealed participants were unable to discriminate between the nominated Likert scales. The consequent approach turned to appreciative inquiry involving observational data and selected interviews with a random sample of participants from both gender groups, as well as focus groups with community elders.

The study presents findings from an experiential activity in a youth group to bridge social boundaries. Findings are presented using a social-ecosystem model. Key constructs relevant to a discussion of social cohesion and connectedness are discussed, and the youth development initiative identified bridging capital strategies and noted countervailing forces to engagement and successful integration. Central to effective social development strategies is the need for peer- and community-based initiatives to foster shared responsibility, hope and a sense of significance. The social-ecosystem framework offers a potential and realistic approach to enabling families and community groups to be the foundation of a safe and resilient country.

A single case study, where the pilot survey revealed participants were unable to discriminate between the nominated Likert scales. The consequent approach turned to appreciative inquiry involving observational data and selected interviews with a random sample of participants from both gender groups, as well as focus groups with community elders.

Looking first at the participants in this program, engagement requires challenge and buy-in, much the same as in classroom-based educational strategies. There are some preconditions that vary by gender. For young men, there is a mask that they adopt. As well, there is a rift between fathers and sons – confirmed in the community consultation and a more general inter-generational gap that requires attention. There are competing tensions that emerge at the family, community and societal levels. For example, the prevailing discourse is on acute VE related responses. However, what is needed is a greater focus on building social cohesion. Conversely, if family commitment is an important motive to disengage from VE, then cultural realities such as fractured communities, lack of role models, as well as a lack of suitable knowledge and the infrastructure for people to deal with vulnerable youth makes the whole issue highly problematic.

Central to community-based primary prevention responses and to bridging capital is the need for common values, strong social networks and shared problem-solving mechanisms. Table I presents a summary of key insights and countervailing forces (in italics and with a *) that illustrates a tug-of-war between different stakeholders in the social-ecosystem. This list is not exhaustive, but it provides a formative framework for the deeper exploration of community participation and evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of primary prevention.

An experiential approach to bridging social boundaries based on a youth development program in a refugee community is presented. Findings are presented using a social-ecosystem model was presented. Key constructs include an ecosystem model, and a framework that links social cohesion, capital and connectedness. The study presents ideas to activate bridging capital strategies and highlights countervailing conditions to engagement and development.

The research illustrates the impact of young people shaping a community-based program.

From the perspective of a youth educator, this research uses participatory action research (PAR) in youth urban agriculture education.

Findings illustrate how youth-led programming creates new processes, revealing new educational opportunities. Outcomes of education programs are strengthened by engaging with students in ways that interest them.

Findings illustrate opportunities for social network bonding through community-based farm stands and challenges in social network bridging through Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs).

Previous articles have noted the need for practitioner perspective in youth education. Scholars have also noted the lack of research that assesses the role of youth urban agriculture programming to advance community engagement. This article contributes to both.