Adolescents and the Youth Justice System
Research by Forensic Psychology Master’s student Pip Dean has shown significant differences in how groups of adolescents interact with and respond to New Zealand’s Youth Justice System.
“Adolescent development is a critical, rapid, and varied process,” Pip says. “However, its impact on the ability of youth to participate in the justice system has been largely unresearched in New Zealand prior to this project.”
Pip’s project involved hands-on field research with adolescents from around New Zealand. She began by working with her supervisor, Dr Clare-Ann Fortune, to develop a semi-structured interview that could assess adolescents’ understanding of, and decision making related to, the youth court and youth justice procedures in New Zealand. The interview is designed to measure their fitness to stand trial. Pip piloted this interview with 90 participants aged 13-18 around New Zealand, also testing their IQ and emotion regulation abilities at the same time.
“Preliminary results show that age and IQ (proxies to signify a young person’s level of development) affect the way adolescents respond when interviewed about key knowledge and concepts regarding the Youth Justice System,” Pip says. “This supports the argument that developmental immaturity influences the way youths interact with the system – the lower their age and IQ, the more difficulty they have.”
Pip hopes to continue this research and other work in this area as part of a PhD in 2019. She has also been accepted into the clinical psychology programme, which will give her the chance to work more in this area through hands-on practice, Pip says.
“The literature in this area is very sparse, although research and policy interest in this area is growing,” Pip says. “If adolescent’s developmental capabilities are creating barriers to their meaningful engagement, and this is not sufficiently being taken into account by the law and legal processes, this could be an ethical violation and a violation of due process. There is a great need for more research in this area.”