Young People's Offending Careers and Criminal Justice Contact: A Case for Social Justice

Corr, Mary-Louise

Abstract

This article draws on an analysis of young people’s offending careers. The research was initiated against a backdrop of changing discourse around youth justice in Ireland with a shift towards prevention of offending and diversion from the criminal justice system. Locating crime and criminal justice contact within a biographical context indicated that participants’ offending, and lives generally, was bound up in marginalized transitions to adulthood, and embedded within social and economic environments characterized by high deprivation. The findings support a further shift in focus towards addressing social injustice as a necessary prerequisite to tackle the origins of youth offending.

Citation

Corr, M.-L. (2014). Young People's Offending Careers and Criminal Justice Contact: A Case for Social Justice. Youth Justice, 14(3), 255-268. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473225414549695

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Sep 25, 2014
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Oct 7, 2014
• Journal: Youth Justice
• Print ISSN: 1473-2254
• Electronic ISSN: 1747-6283
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 255-268
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1473225414549695
• Keywords: Ireland; offending careers; social justice; youth offending
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/7240
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1473225414549695