Visiting expert offers youth crime insights
Study author to talk with minister
RECOGNISING conditions found far more frequently among youth in prison than other young people is the first step towards helping them, a visiting expert from the United Kingdom says.
Sheffield Universitybased sociologist Prof Nathan Hughes is in New Zealand for two weeks as William Evans Fellow University of Otago.
He will be speaking to Justice Minister Andrew Little, Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft, and Principal Youth Court Judge John Walker, discussing youth who get into trouble with the criminal justice system.
Prof Hughes is lead author of the 2012 study ‘‘Nobody Made the Connection’’, which found between 60% and 90% of young people in prison in different Western countries battled with communication impairments.
The impairments overlapped with other conditions described in the report, which looked at the high rate of foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in the prison population, as well as the rate of intellectual disability, traumatic brain injury and ADHD.
One of the issues he would be discussing while in New Zealand was the stage at which disabilities could potentially be picked up — since involvement with the criminal justice system usually came ‘‘at the end . . . of a whole series of challenges’’ such as exclusion from school.
‘‘Educational difficulty and disengagement is probably incredibly common,’’ Prof Hughes said.
It was important to get the education, health and legal systems talking to each other and working together so young people did not slip through the cracks.
New Zealand tended to be forwardthinking in its approach to youth offenders with problems, which was one of the reasons Prof Hughes was in the country.
Principal Youth Court Judge John Walker and Chief District Court Judge JanMarie Doogue have called for specialist neurodisability courts to be established, and since last August have been reviewing information from other jurisdictions to get ideas.
‘‘New Zealand gets this,’’ Prof Hughes said. ‘‘It’s recognising that we need to be thinking differently.’’
Making the Youth Court process more accessible to people with disabilities was key, and Judge Walker would be discussing how that could happen.
Prof Hughes stressed his work around youth in the criminal justice system was not about excusing offending, but about recognising issues.
When it came to something like executive functioning — which could be affected by foetal alcohol syndrome — an offender might have a clear understanding of what they needed to do in future to avoid reoffending.
However they might not be able to apply that knowledge in place in times of stress, leading people to think ‘‘he’s done it again’’.
Likewise, communication issues could be perceived as attitude problems.
Compared to the rest of the youth population covered in ‘‘Nobody Made the Connection’’ the rate of FAS for the prison population was 1112%, rather than 0.15%.
Between 32% and 50% of the youth prison population had a traumatic brain injury, according to the report, whereas for the rest of the population that rate was between 5% and 24%.