Youth Justice in the Digital Age: A Case Study of Practitioners’ Perspectives on the Challenges and Opportunities of Social Technology in Their Techno-Habitat in the United Kingdom
| Author | Ravinder Barn,Balbir S. Barn |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1473225419869568 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1473225419869568
Youth Justice
2019, Vol. 19(3) 185 –205
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1473225419869568
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Youth Justice in the Digital Age:
A Case Study of Practitioners’
Perspectives on the Challenges
and Opportunities of Social
Technology in Their
Techno-Habitat in the
United Kingdom
Ravinder Barn and Balbir S. Barn
Abstract
This article draws on original, empirical research that focused on the use of an experimental mobile application
developed by the authors and used in the domain of youth justice in England. Against a backdrop of the theory
of the paradox of technology with ideas of the networked self and child rights, the article explores the use of
social technology with vulnerable/marginalised young people. Given the dearth in knowledge and understanding,
in this area of social technology and young people in conflict with the law, the article focuses on an important,
original and fast-developing issue in contemporary youth justice. Principally, the article explores the experiences
and views of practitioners to promote a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges in the adoption
of social technology in working with marginalised young people. Practitioner perceptions on the use of social
technology in their own practice and its associated risks and benefits are also revealed. Study findings indicate
that digital opportunities and challenges are embedded in organisational and cultural structures and practices.
The article discusses implications for youth justice and ultimately for young people in conflict with the law who
are caught up in the system. The article raises important issues about the likely increasing use of technology
as a tool in rehabilitation and desistance; and its key messages will be of considerable interest to practitioners,
managers and policy-makers who will have little option, as time goes on, to enter this controversial field.
Keywords
app, ethics, mobile app, practitioner competence, risk management, techno-habitat, technology, youth
justice
Introduction
Young people are prolific technology users as well as being dominant users and owners of
smart mobile phones (Statista, 2019). Given this development, there is a chronic paucity of
Corresponding author:
Ravinder Barn, School of Law, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, Surrey, UK.
Email: r.barn@rhul.ac.uk
869568YJJ0010.1177/1473225419869568Youth JusticeBarn and Barn
research-article2019
Original Article
186 Youth Justice 19(3)
the use of apps in youth justice to help reduce re-offending behaviours. This article focuses
on the experiences and views of practitioners, namely, case workers in youth offending
teams, to promote a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges in the adop-
tion of social technology in working with vulnerable and marginalised young people. A key
responsibility of case workers is to help ensure that young people comply with their court
orders and meet the court’s supervisory requirements around key goals and outcomes.
Non-compliance can result in case workers breaching a young person and a possible even-
tual court appearance (generally after a total of three breaches) that may lead to a custodial
sentence. Examples of non-compliance can include lack of attendance at a scheduled meet-
ing or specified activity, and not adhering to a curfew or exclusion zone order (Grandi and
Adler, 2016). The use of social technology, that can be a tool in preventive practice, may
help in rehabilitation and lead to a possible reduction in the need for custody.
The article is structured in six segments. First, to help the reader engage with the arti-
cle, we begin with a description of the bespoke social technology developed by the
research team, for use in youth offending teams. Second, we sketch out the background
context in which we document how technology is currently conceptualised in contempo-
rary society. Following this, we provide the reader with a sense of the domain of youth
justice to help make sense of study findings. The article then moves on to discuss the
study aims and objectives. This is followed by study findings, principally the qualitative
accounts of case workers in their use of new technology. Discussion/analysis and conclu-
sions identify some key issues and concerns in the adoption of technology with marginal-
ised groups in society.
The Mobile Apps in Youth Offending Teams App
Below, we introduce our Mobile Apps in Youth Offending Teams (MAYOT) and its
functionality.
Given the context of increasing use of digital technology in our lives and a lack of rele-
vant apps in the youth justice sector, an interdisciplinary research study, instigated in 2014,
set out to explore how social technology could be developed and adopted for the purposes
of reducing re-offending and promoting better engagement between young people and their
case workers. Our MAYOT app project developed a personalised mobile app for use by
young people and their case workers in youth offending teams. In line with Bovaird (2007),
the design of the app adopted a co-production/co-design approach. The app offered a range
of features elaborated through a process of co-design with inputs from young people, case
workers and managers. Features implemented in the app included automated reminders of
key appointments/scheduled activities, visual displays of personalised goals/objectives and
progress, nudging around curfew times and exclusion zones, and access to relevant contacts,
and useful information on health, drugs and alcohol, stop and search and knife crime.
The research findings described in this article are within the broader context of the
overall research undertaken as part of the design and deployment of the MAYOT app as a
force for positive engagement with young people in the youth justice sector. In this article,
we report on the qualitative dimensions involving front-line case workers’ perceptions on
technology in their direct practice with young people. Notably, the larger study adopted a
mixed-methods approach in the collection of data in the co-design of the app.
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