Background

The overwhelming majority of children entering care do so for reasons not related to their own behaviour, yet these children are at the greatest risk of becoming criminalised. Around half of looked after children will have a criminal conviction by early adulthood. We should be mindful that at least two thirds of care leavers have experienced abuse and/or neglect.

A significant problem for young people in care is the existence of the ‘cliff edge’ at 18 years of age. By becoming a legal adult, the young person is no longer deemed as in care by the law. Consequently, many services vanish from their lives, although there are some limited sources of ongoing support up to 25 years.

Key statistics are as follows:

• 83,840 children in England and 7,210 children in Wales were looked after by their local authority at the end of March 2023
• 1 in 3 care-experienced children (33 per cent) born between 1996 and 1999 received a youth justice caution or conviction between the ages of 10 and 17 compared to 4 per cent of those without care experience
• 92 per cent of looked after children in England in 2022 who had received an immediate custodial sentence by age 24 years were identified as having special educational needs
• 37 per cent of children in residential placements in England in 2022 were placed at least 20 miles from their last home.

Summary of the evidence

Pathways into the criminal justice system

There are three common pathways into the criminal justice system for those with care experience:

• early adversity: poor attachment with parents/carers, lack of parental supervision, and experiences of abuse and neglect are more common for those with care experience. Those experiences can lead to challenging behaviour that involves the police and courts
• the care experience itself: research in England found children in residential care aged 13 to 15 years were six times more likely to be criminalised than children in other placements. This is often due ‘care criminalisation’ – the criminalisation of behaviour that would not have brought police attention in other home settings
• the transition to adulthood: the ‘cliff edge’ at 18 years involves a sudden reduction of support which heightens the risk of offending behaviours through frustration and survival crime.

Find out more about youth to adult transitions

Race and gender

Research suggests that the experience of childhood adversity for girls may have a more severe impact on them than for boys. Many girls will have experienced significant levels of abuse and victimisation, and subsequent vulnerabilities can include sexual exploitation, early sexual intercourse, and early motherhood. Gender has also been identified as a factor leading to differential responses from other agencies, with girls being more likely to be blamed for circumstances preceding their offending, such as criminal or sexual exploitation. Care- experienced girls who do become involved in the youth justice system can thus experience a ‘triple whammy’ of negative stereotyping based on their gender, care status, and offending behaviour.

While care-experienced children are disproportionately likely to have youth justice involvement compared to those without care experience, some groups of ethnic minority children are even more likely to have youth justice involvement and to have higher levels of such involvement. Where children’s racialised identities intersect with gender, professionals have noted a tendency of other agencies to view boys as aggressive and have undue suspicion of Black boys being involved in gang-related activity.

The video below, developed by an ADR UK Research Fellow and Barnardo’s, highlights the obstacles faced by Black children.

Disclaimer: an external platform has been used to host this video. Recommendations for further viewing may appear at the end of the video and are beyond our control.

The impact of care experience

Care experience can undermine opportunities to develop trusting and positive relationships with adults, exacerbated by a greater likelihood of encountering antisocial peers, and the prior and ongoing experiences of abuse, neglect, and trauma. Research indicates that the following impacts of care experience can increase the likelihood of criminalisation:

• the loss of or infrequent contact with family and friends
• placement instability and frequent moves
• poor relationships with carers and social workers, particularly in residential homes
• peer pressure, especially from older children in residential care
• the stigma attached to being in residential care as a placement of last resort.

Children in residential care have expressed concerns that the settings are too institutional rather than homely, with a focus on control not care, and that labelling and being stigmatised can be a common experience. Providers thus need to reduce the bureaucratic nature of residential care, and provide more normal home environments where misbehaviour is handled proportionately without unnecessary police involvement.

Helping care-experienced children

While there are gaps in the evidence, research studies have highlighted the importance of continuous care planning and interagency work for children in the care system, as well as keeping children within local authority boundaries, fully utilising all diversionary opportunities, and challenging and reducing labelling and stigma. The following approaches have also been identified as helpful with care-experienced children and young people:

• building a trauma-responsive care system – loss, grief, victimisation and/or violence characterise the lives of many before and during care
• providing meaningful and timely mental health support – the adverse experiences experienced by those in care make mental health provision a priority
• developing protocols aimed at preventing criminalisation in care – the protocols that exist should be explained to and supported by all professionals working in the system
• moving beyond the official record – the ‘thick file’ of incidents in case records would not exist in non-care settings. Getting to know the individual and listening in a meaningful way is advocated by those with lived experience
• promoting trusted and consistent relationships – there should be sufficient workload space for professionals to get to know the people being supported
• understanding the need for care-experienced children and young people to have a ‘secure base’ of trust and safety.

Care-experienced children value the positive relationships which can be established with youth justice practitioners. The component aspects of building these relationships have been identified as: consistency and perseverance; being flexible and thinking holistically; and being child-centred and empathetic. Children have cited non-judgmental and consistent support as important, and particularly like aspects of work which are active and engaging. They also value the ability of practitioners to foster optimism for their futures.

A whole system approach

The wider social, political and economic context in which youth justice services operate can directly impact what they can achieve for care-experienced children. Increased pressures on resources across agencies can exacerbate existing challenges for these children, and make it harder to meet their needs and support their positive development. So while multi-agency working has the potential to promote positive outcomes for care-experienced children, it needs to be adequately resourced.

Practitioners need to be sufficiently educated and there should be a focus on building productive relationships, considering how those with different perspectives and priorities can successfully work together. As part of a whole system approach, attention should be given to the number of professionals involved in the lives of care and youth justice experienced children. The practice of having a ‘professional for everything’ can be counter-productive, with children finding the re-telling of, sometimes traumatic, past experiences to multiple professionals to be intrusive, challenging and harmful, causing them to withdraw from services and interventions.

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Last updated: 19 July 2024