17 December 2015

Young adults in court: developing a tailored approach

News and events

Young adults (age 18-25) make up less than 10% of the population, but represent roughly a third of people sentenced in criminal courts each year.

 

In a new report, ‘Young adults in court: developing a tailored approach’, Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) outline a number of feasible adaptations to standard court practice for young adults. These include measures such as use of simplified language to aid participants’ understanding, taking steps to ensure the process is understood, encouraging family participation, and adapting the courtroom environment to make it more conducive to engagement.

 

Taken together, CJI argue that these adaptations could increase perceptions of procedural fairness and improve rehabilitation for this distinct population. With the right interventions, which take into account growing evidence around developmental maturity and age-specific needs, young adults are far more likely to grow out of crime.

 

The report says that there is clear evidence that how decisions in court are made and how the process feels to participants  can be as important as the sentence itself to young people’s perceptions.

 

Many of the changes outlined in the report are relatively modest. And much of the practice recommended already exists, at least in aspiration, in our youth courts.

 

In the course of research for the report, the researchers spoke with many court stakeholders who recognised a need to develop a tailored approach for young adults, and who were enthusiastic about delivering adapted practice.  The Lord Chancellor has recently lent his support to the concept of specialist “problem-solving” courts which would play a more active role in the process of rehabilitation.