Job retention: Employment problems of youth
| Author | Christine Alder,Hilary Read |
| Published date | 01 June 1988 |
| Date | 01 June 1988 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486588802100202 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
AUST &NZ
JOURNAL
OF CRIMINOLOGY (JUNE 1988) 21 (67-80)
JOB RETENTION: EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS OF YOUTH
FROM YOUTH TRAINING CENTRES*
Hilary
Read
tand Christine Alder!
67
The recurring life pattern for many adolescents in Youth Training Centres (YTCs)
is
one
of wardship, unemployment, offending and institutionalisation.
One
aspect
of current deinstitutionalisation policies is to alter this
pattern
by developing the
employrnent prospects of these young people. Youth workers generally agree that,
although they can place youth who have been released from YTCs in employment,
these jobs are often not retained. However, to this point, there is little systematic
data which either documents the
job
retention rate of young offenders in
employment, or which can be drawn upon to help explain the informally observed
low
job
retention rate. The reasons for the perceived low job retention of youth
released from YTCs is the subject of this research.
The concern for the development of long term employment possibilities for
YTC
youth is supported by criminological theory and research which indicate the
importance of employment for the integration of young offenders. Youth who leave
YTC
without employment or who fail to keep their jobs, face the general
psychological effects of unemployment including the feelings of powerlessness and
hopelessness, loss of identity and alienation that are often associated with
anti-social and self-destructive behaviour.
For
young people, such as those released
from YTC, who are often unable to call upon family or school, the world of work
becomes a crucial institutional arena for providing the experiences of power,
belonging and competence so important for the development of alternative choices
to "delinquent" behaviour.
The
importance of work for the successful "re-integration" of youth who have
been institutionalised is recognised by some of those people responsible for their
well-being.
For
example, the Turana Task Force (1985) described work release
programmes based either in the institution or in the community as perhaps the most
important phase of the sentence and essential for re-integration. Community
Services Victoria (CSV, 1986:50) has noted that "leave, work release and
community supervision
a~e
essential
...
" to the process of re-integration. These
attitudes towards work release are confirmed by the experience of the Youth Parole
Board. It expresses the belief
"that
aparolee's ability to successfully return to the
community is vastly improved if he is gainfully employed" (Youth Parole Board,
1987:8).
The
value of employment is also supported by evaluations and reviews of
delinquency prevention programmes. In Australia, Windshuttle (1985) concludes
from his review of prevention programmes both here and overseas that measures
broadly described as labour market, education and training programmes have an
important pIace at all levels of crime prevention. This includes the tertiary level of
crime prevention, aimed at the reduction of recidivism and the integration of
delinquents into the community (Windshuttle, 1985). The value of employment in
*This research was funded by a grant from the Australian Criminology Research Council, Canberra.
tMA, Dip Crim, Research Fellow, Criminology Department, University of Melbourne.
:/:
PhD, Lecturer, Criminology Department, University of Melbourne.
To continue reading
Request your trial