“NOT Just Another Brick in the Wall” (with apologies to Pink Floyd)

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track – 5 October 2011

Andrew BecroftPrincipal Youth Court JudgeTe Kaiwhakawa Matua o Te Kooti Taiohi

Some Questions For You…?

Geography

Question: “Name the four seasons ”

Salt, Pepper, Mustard and Vinegar

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Questions…?

Biology

Question: “What is artificial respiration commonly known as?”

The kiss of death

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Questions…?

Biology

Question: “What is a terminal illness?”

When you are sick at the airport

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Questions…?

English

Question: “what does the word ‘benign’ mean? ”

Benign is what you will be after you be eight

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Questions…?

English

Question: “Define the word ‘monotony’ ”

Monotony is being married to the same person all your life

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Questions…?

History

Question: “What is NZ’s highest award for valour in war ”

The Sky Tower

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Questions…?

Biology

Question: “What is the fibula? ”

A small lie

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Questions…?

Biology

Question: “Where are the Tibia? ”

They live in a country in North Africa

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Questions…?

Physics

Question: “What is a vacuum?”

A large empty space where the Pope lives

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

A question for RTLBs: “What is Success?”

• I read much about better structure, improved management and attention to better and more consistent RTLB practice

• BUT….what is a “successful” outcome?

• How is RTLB “success” to be “measured”?

• If more consistent practice equals “a better deal for students”………what is a “better deal”?

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some suggested answers… (dreams?)

• High needs children (requiring RTLBs) identified very early

• All children/young people kept within mainstream education (or participating and engaging with education?)

• Exclusions and suspensions dramatically reduced because of RTLB practice?

• RTLBs working with individual students and teachers… AND ALSO working with (or ensuring others work with) families and Govt or NGO agencies

• Child / youth offending reduced!

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Obsessive?

My Central Message

• Anecdotally, up to 80% of offenders in Youth Court are not formally “engaged” with, let alone

participating in, the education system

• Behavioural and learning problems are often at the heart of this “disengagement”

• Technically, many are not truants because they are not enrolled at a secondary school from

which to truant

• Is there a “king-hit” to reduce youth offending? NO! But if there was,

keeping every young person actively involved in some form of education until the age of 16

would be an excellent start!

• Note: Police figures show 25-30% of youth offending occurs - 9am and 3pm

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

RTLBs are builders of resilience in young people

Can an RTLB avoid involvement in the five core domains of a young person’s life?

1. A member of a stable, loving family

2. Active involvement in education

3. Positive - “pro-social” friends

4. Strong & many connections to local community (e.g. sports / cultural and youth groups etc)

5. Spiritual needs addressed

RTLBs are involved in “domain 2”, but can you avoid the other 4 domains? You are a frontline crime-fighting team

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Overview

1. Four myths about youth justice and child and youth offenders

2. Ten issues facing young people today, from the perspective of the Youth Court

3. Some challenges

4. Conclusion

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

The Need for Clarity

Myth 1: Youth offending is skyrocketing, or at least increasing

• Wrong!

• Apprehensions of child and youth offenders are declining, particularly since 2003

• Note: apprehensions are the best measure we have, not necessarily an accurate measure

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Declining Youth Apprehension Rates

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Child and Youth Offending Statistics in New Zealand: 1992-2008. Pub. Ministry of Justice 2010.

Police apprehension rates per 10,000 population for non-traffic offences, by age group, 1995 to 2008

…but apprehensions for youth violence increasing

Police Apprehension rates per 10,000 population of 14 to 16 year olds for all violent offences, 1995 to 2008

Taken from the Child and Youth Offending Statistics in New Zealand: 1992-2008. Pub. Ministry of Justice 2010.

Myth 2: All youth offenders are essentially similar

• As a generalisation – there are two types of young offenders

• Vital that we understand the difference

• The “adolescent onset” offender (desisters)

– The majority of youth offenders = 80% (?)

– But may commit only 20-30% of youth offences

– Usually only offend as teenagers

– We can work with this group effectively in the community, usually without

Youth Court intervention

– This group of offenders is usually not charged, but some must be,

especially if the offending is serious, albeit isolated

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

14 – 16 Year Olds Charged in the Youth Court 1980 - 2006

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Year

Numberof cases

appearingin court Number of cases

CYP & F Act

All youth offenders are essentially similar (cont)

• The “early onset” “life-course” “persistent” offender

– Small group (5 – 10% of youth offenders)

– The unexploded human time-bombs

– But may commit up to 50% of youth offences

– 1,000 at a minimum

– We know their names, and their families are known to many

agencies

– Comprise about half of those appearing in the Youth Court

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

“Persisters” – life course offenders

‘a substantial body of longitudinal research consistently points to a very small group of males who display high rates of antisocial behaviour across time and in diverse situations. The professional nomenclature may change, but the faces remain the same as they drift through successive systems aimed at curbing their deviance: schools, juvenile-justice programs, psychiatric-treatment centers, and prisons’ (1996:15).

- Moffit 1996, in “Tough is Not Enough” (2000)

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Otago Youth Wellness TrustAnalysis of Dunedin Youth Offenders: Period 1 Jan 2007 – 31 Dec 2010

Alternative Education (n=33)

• 81% male

• 49% Maori

• 76% CYF care and protection involvement

• 100% specialist mental health service involvement

• 93% poor school attendance

• 86% school suspension / expulsion

• 79% attended greater than four secondary schools / training providers

• 43% offending started aged less than twelve years

• 79% specialist drug and alcohol service involvement

• 75% early sexual activity

• 34% suicide / attempt / self harm by young person

• 46% suicide / attempt / self harm by peer or family member

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Capital & Coast Youth Forensic Services Statistics: 2000 – 2004 n = 276

• 83% Male

• Maori over-represented (48%)

• 70% faced cannabis and alcohol issues

– 16% drug dependent; 14% alcohol dependent

• 18% attending school: 28% attending course/training; 45% unemployed

• 45% excluded/expelled from school

• 55% attended more than one school/transient

• 60% in CYFS care at some stage

• 12% living with both parents; 28% with one parent

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Characteristics of Young Offenders: England & Wales

An analysis of 4,000 young offenders

• 83% Male

• 70% from single parent families

• 41% regularly truanting

• 60% have special educational needs

• Over 50% use cannabis

• 75% smoke and drink

• 75% considered impulsive

• 25% at risk of harm as a result of their own behaviour (9% at risk of suicide)

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Myth 3: Young people are simply “junior adults”

Recent research shows that frontal lobe development (good judgement

etc) is not completed until early - 20s…yet puberty has never started

earlier. Adolescence has never lasted so long.

“New MRI scanners have looked at the brain over time to see how it

matures and several studies have shown quite dramatically that the

last parts to mature deal with things like logic, judgement and wisdom.

Those x-rays show they may not be mature until people are 25 to 30”

– Prof P Gluckman, Liggins Institute Auckland, Sunday Star Times 12/10.2008

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Youth are always challenging…..!

“There are a number of children running about the streets of Dunedin … without the control of parents. If the

government does not take them in hand … they will become … members of a criminal class.”

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Youth are always challenging…..!

“There is a definite relationship between the increase in the number of children on the streets and the increase in

juvenile crime.”

First headline from the Otago Daily Times 1884; second in 1886

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Youth are always challenging…..!

“. . . would there were no age between ten and three and twenty or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child,

wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting…”

Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, Act 3, scene 3

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Youth are always challenging…..!

“What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions.

Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?”

Plato, 4th Century BC

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Youth are always challenging…..!

“We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient.

They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control.”

Inscription, 6000 year-old Egyptian tomb

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

• What are the policy implications of the relatively recent knowledge

about the second growth period or “pruning stage” of the frontal

lobe of the teenage brain?

• “Improving the Transition – Reducing Social and Psychological

Morbidity During Adolescence”, a report from the Prime Minister’s

Chief Science Advisor, Prof P Gluckman, May 2011

• Youth law lags behind (does NOT match) the brain science e.g.

driving licence age, alcohol supply age, charging 12 / 13 year olds,

age mixing of young people with adults, sentencing etc

Myth 4: Youth justice legislation and policy matches the brain science

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Ten Issues facing young people in NZ…the context for RTLBs

• Not exhaustive

• Through the lens of the Youth Court

• At the extreme end – but nevertheless an insight into issues that all teenagers, to some degree, will confront

• Most are “laid down” or first emerge during child-hood

• What would be your top ten?

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

A different perspective…..

Slide Title

1. Family

1. Family

• Very few serious youth offenders from stable, two-parent, homes

– not saying “every solo parent breeds a criminal”

– not making judgement about separation

• Most serious young offenders lack a positive, male, role model

• Family disadvantage, dysfunction, violence and transience usually of fundamental importance

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

An issue: parental “passivity” / “helplessness”

2. School Attendance & Participation

• “Increasing attendance and participation in school by young people a key factor in reducing anti-social behaviour and offending”

• Not all truants/non-enrolled young people offend: but overwhelming majority of offenders are truants or not enrolled

• May not be causative; but a clear link exists

• Every young person kept at school, alternative education/vocational training is one less potential career criminal

2. School Attendance & Participation

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Learning Disabilities / Conduct Disorder / ADHD / Autism / FASD

March 2008

3. Income Inequality; Socio-Economic Disadvantage

How much richer are the richest 20% than the poorest 20%?

www.equalitytrust.org.ukSource: Wilkinson & Pickett, The Spirit Level (2009)

Child Well-being is Better in More Equal Rich Countries

Source: Wilkinson & Pickett, The Spirit Level (2009) www.equalitytrust.org.uk

Slide Title

4. Violence

Slide Title

Don’t forget bullying:

No school is exempt!

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

4. Violence

Slide Title

Female Violence

March 2008

5. Cannabis Use / Alcohol Abuse

Photos courtesy of Dave Hookway

March 2008

6. Maori over representation in youth justice

Youth Justice practice effects Mäori & non-Mäori Equally – Yeah right!

• Disproportionate number of Mäori apprehensions

• The figures are unacceptable in any civilized community:

– 19% (Mäori in the 14-16 age group)

– 49% (of police youth apprehensions are Mäori)

– 55% (of young people before the Youth Court are Mäori)

– 62% (of young people in custody are Mäori)

• New and culturally based approaches

– Lay Advocates, a statutory role, fallow for 21 years

– Rangatahi Courts

– Therapeutic jurisprudence

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

7. Red / Blue

8. Positive Male Role Models (lack of!)

• Young people seek out role models like heat seeking missile

• Only issue: who is it that they associate with?

8. Importance of Male Role Models

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

1. Involvement in mentoring programmes, or support of mentors is a very practical step that will make a difference

2. A wonderful opportunity for any adult in the community who wants to make a difference

3. An example: “the man from Microsoft”

4. Support the community groups who work with young offenders

8. The Importance of Mentoring

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

9. Need for Community “Connectedness”

Slide Title

“A kid in sport stays out of Court”

sign outside Blenheim airport

• A young person involved in sport, or any organised, positive community activity, stays out of Youth Court

• A very protective factor - builds resilience: good friends, good role models, good discipline, fulfilment and success

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

9. Need for Community “Connectedness”

Slide Title Plac008

10.Values up for grabs!

Slide Title

• Honesty and truthfulness

• Kindness

• Consideration and concern for others

• Compassion

• Obedience

• Responsibility

• Respect

• Duty

(C.S. Lewis, the Abolition of Man)

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some important values

Values are non-negotiable

Slide Title

• RTLBs ensure attention to all five domains of a child / young person’s life

• Schools of the future as “social service hubs”; a co-located set of services

• Most problems are not just learning / behaviour; “co-morbidity” of issues.

• Best practice…

RTLB Conference: Keeping Young People on Track –

5 October 2011

Some Final Challenges

School, Teacher and Classroom Based Programmes

Parent and Family Based Programmes

The Real Solution?