Community engagement in youth justice program design
| Author | Luke Butcher,Steven Stanton,Debra Miles,Garry Kidd,Andrew Day |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865820933332 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Community engagement
in youth justice
program design
Luke Butcher
James Cook University, Australia
Andrew Day
University of Melbourne, Australia
Garry Kidd and Debra Miles
James Cook University, Australia
Steven Stanton
Consultant, Australia
Abstract
Aboriginal young people from rural areas in Australia are significantly over-represented in the
youth justice system, and yet there is little evidence to indicate that current programs are having
measurable success on rates of re-offending, suggesting alternative approaches are required.
Drawing on new directions in human service policy that emphasise the importance of involving
community in program design, this study reports the findings of a consultation with Aboriginal
community members from one rural community to identify how the ecological validityof youth
justice programs may be increased to be more responsive to local need. Eighteen Aboriginal
community members from a town in Western New South Wales participated in semi-
structured interviews, guided by a culturally informed research methodology. Qualitative con-
tent analysis was used to identify key themes that the community saw as important in program
design, highlighting the need for consistent levels of support for local and community-driven
solutions. Proposed conditions to enhance the ecological validity of programs are discussed.
Keywords
Aboriginal, community engagement, program design, rural, youth justice
Date received: 20 December 2019; accepted: 18 May 2020
Corresponding author:
Luke Butcher, College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
Email: luke.butcher@my.jcu.edu.au
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2020, Vol. 53(3) 369–386
!The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865820933332
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It is now well established that Aboriginal young people from rural communities are
significantly over-represented across all levels of the criminal justice system in Australia,
with the rate of justice system contact not declining over the last 10 years (Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018) despite a range of different intervention programs
being implemented. These programs aim to reduce involvement with the justice system
by addressing the presence or intensity of empirically derived risk factors thought to be
associated with offending behaviour (Day & Fransisco, 2013; Poyton & Menendez,
2015; Stewart et al., 2014; Trimboli, 2019). However, recent evidence has shown signif-
icant differences between standardised risk profiles of Aboriginal young people who
offend from rural, regional and remote areas and their metropolitan counterparts,
thus drawing attention to the influence of ecology has on offending risk patterns
(Butcher et al., 2019). A potential explanation for the apparent lack of progress being
made in reducing over-representation is that current youth justice programs are not a
sufficiently good fit to the contexts of Aboriginal rural young people, and therefore,
have a low level of ecological validity (see H. Blagg, et al., 2015; Gray & Hetherington,
2007; Lavery, 2018). Programs that typically suffer from a low level of ecological valid-
ity include those that are directly imported from other areas of the country (or world)
and where program theory is based upon universal and reductionist explanations of
human behaviour which are divorced from context and environment, and thus, do not
address the specific needs of the local population (see H. Blagg, et al., 2015; Dudgeon &
Kelly, 2014; Lavery, 2018). This paper starts by considering the rationale for engaging
community members when designing new programs to meet the needs of young people
who offend. A study describing ways in which the ecological validity of current youth
justice programs might be improved is then described, before discussing how this
approach represents one way of responding to the over-representation of rural
Aboriginal young people in the youth justice system.
Recently, judiciary and government have called for greater service user involvement
in the design of human service programs which, in itself, could strengthen ecological
validity (e.g. Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council, 2018;
Dickinson et al., 2017; NSW Law and Safety Committee, 2018). More specifically, in
order to enhance the ecological validity of programs in an Aboriginal context, the
involvement of Aboriginal community leaders and knowledge holders in the dual pro-
cess of identifying the issues that affect their community and co-developing a commu-
nity response is considered essential to the collection and interpretation of evidence to
inform policy decisions (Gray & Hetherington, 2007; Kendall et al., 2011). This is clearly
illustrated in New South Wales (NSW), where it has been recognised that the system of
service delivery has historically failed to meet the needs of Aboriginal communities. For
example, the Law and Safety Committee Inquiry into the Adequacy of Youth
Diversionary Programs recommended the importance of ‘partnerships with the
Aboriginal community in the design and delivery of diversionary programs’ (NSW
Law & Safety Committee, 2018, p. 16). Similarly, significant policy changes are dem-
onstrated in recent Out of Home Care reforms (‘Their Futures Matter’) which identify
the need for support programs to be designed with local Aboriginal communities (NSW
Communities And Justice, 2020). Furthermore, the Australian Fifth National Mental
370 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 53(3)
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