Neurodiversity in the youth justice system in England and Wales

The recognition and understanding of the association between neurodiversity and youth offending is an intricate undertaking, particularly for youth justice practitioners who are tasked with the challenge of preventing offending behaviour in children and young people. This chapter considers the current state of knowledge on neurodiversity in the youth justice system (YJS) in England and Wales, along with the challenges it presents in terms of its over-representation and the provision of appropriate interventions. It will first contextualise our contemporary thinking about neurodiversity and how this has evolved from its status of ‘disability’ to one of uniqueness and potential. It will examine neurodiversity’s link to youth offending, how this may occur and the drivers behind the proliferation of neurodiverse young people appearing before the courts and their incarceration in the juvenile secure estate. It will then assess how far the landscape of neurodiversity in the YJS has changed over the last decade by examining the findings of a small-scale study undertaken by the author in 2015. This study investigated frontline practitioner perspectives of neurodiversity in the YJS by interrogating their experiences and perceptions of working with neurodiverse young people. Youth justice practitioners are professionals from a range of agencies, including social work, probation, health, education and the police, who work in partnership within multi-agency Youth Offending Services. Their role is the prevention of offending in young people aged 10–18 years. This chapter exposes the fact that there is an over-representation of young people with these issues being managed within the YJS and concludes with recommendations as to how we may redress this imbalance.