Why do young people commit crimes? How do they get on a path to imprisonment? These are the questions Professor Nathan Hughes has been trying to answer.
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The Sheffield University researcher found high rates of neurodevelopmental impairments, such as ADHD and foetal alcohol syndrome, in the youth offenders he's studied in the United Kingdom.
He says these impairments can cause difficulties with cognition, emotional function, and communication.
Professor Hughes is in New Zealand as the University of Otago’s William Evans Fellow, meeting with senior justice officials to share his plan to support vulnerable young people. He joined Jesse Mulligan to share his research.
He and his team have carried out studies in the United Kingdom and reviewed studies across the globe and found that the levels of these impairments and conditions among young people in prison are disproportionately high compared with the general population.
“For example, we consistently find that at least 60 percent of young people in prison have serious communication problems, problems that are going to impact upon their day-to-day social interactions and this compares to rates of around seven percent in the general population.”
They’ve found similarly high rates of reported traumatic brain injuries with 30-50 percent of youth prison population having experienced that compared with about half of that in the general population.
Hughes has a particular interest in foetal alcohol syndrome which about 10-20 percent of youth in custody have it compared with less than one percent in the general population.
He’s careful to point out that these conditions are not the sole cause, people presenting these impairments tend to come from disadvantaged backgrounds which plays a large role in youth offending.
“It’s just that these disabilities play an additional part in the complex mix of that offending,” he says.
“My key argument is that if we’re not understanding how these forms of disability are impacting on a young person’s behaviour then we’re not accurately able to respond to them. The interventions that we put in place are not going to be able to meet the underlying needs of that young person.
“We need to be thinking about specific interventions that recognise and respond to those difficulties. That means assessment and screening when that young person is in front of a court to understand what we should be doing.”
Huges says there are interventions which are well-used and effective in health and education settings which haven’t yet been taken up by the criminal justice system.
“For example, if we’re working with somebody with traumatic brain injury, we talk about neuro-rehabilitation and there are a whole set of techniques we might use to successfully support a young person, or indeed an adult, to recognise some of the challenges that they’re facing in their day-to-day life and develop strategies to address these.”
His research has been met with positive engagement from the local justice system including from principal Youth Court Judge Walker and other senior judges. He says the Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft has also shown strong leadership on this.
“They are seeking to respond to the needs of these young people when they are in court. Whilst we may not see the clear, robust assessments yet, they’re well aware of where they’re seeing these difficulties and trying to think about how their courts might respond differently."
A week ago, Judge Walker announced plans for a specialist court for young people with neuro-developmental impairments. Hughes says it’s an exciting initiative he’s keen to support.
“It’s early signs, but we’re on the way to developing some more appropriate responses here I think and if that comes off, it would be a very innovative world-leading development.”
