Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:42 am
Time: 1:42 am
Results for police-juvenile relations
6 results foundAuthor: Dolic, Zrinjka Title: Race or Reason? Police Encounters with Young People in the Flemington Region and Surrounding Areas Summary: The following research examines the role that demographic factors, such as country of birth and gender, play in shaping young people’s experiences with and attitudes toward the police. The Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre (FKCLC) commissioned the study at a time of growing concern about young people being treated unfairly by the police in the Flemington and Kensington community. The relationship between police and youth is fraught with difficulties and there is growing evidence that ethnic minority youth are more vulnerable to being treated unfairly by the police (Alder et al, 1992; Chan, 1997; White, 1994). In particular, the interaction between police and African youth has been a source of increasing concern of late with research identifying that African youth experience frequent unwarranted stopping, searching and police harassment in the areas of Flemington, Braybrook and City of Greater Dandenong (Duff, 2006; Reside & Smith, 2010). This study contributes to current research on race and gender by offering further evidence of the differential police treatment experienced by African youth. The findings of this study warrant further investigation and at the same time contribute to an increased awareness of the issues and challenges faced by this group of young people. A total of 151 young people, aged 15-‐24 participated in this research by completing an anonymous survey. The young people who were surveyed lived in Flemington and the surrounding areas, were roughly equal numbers of young men and women, and included young people from diverse ethnicities and non-‐English speaking backgrounds. Details: Kensington, Victoria, Australia: Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre, 2011. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 15, 2012 at: http://www.communitylaw.org.au/flemingtonkensington/cb_pages/files/FKCLC%20report%20March%202011_small2.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Australia URL: http://www.communitylaw.org.au/flemingtonkensington/cb_pages/files/FKCLC%20report%20March%202011_small2.pdf Shelf Number: 125273 Keywords: Attitudes toward PolicePolice-Citizen InteractionsPolice-Community RelationsPolice-Juvenile RelationsPublic OpinionRacial Profiling (Australia) |
Author: Brandt, Chris Title: Young People and the Police in Lagos Summary: The relationship between young people and the police has normally been characterized by mutual suspicion and hostility. However, in Nigeria, very little data has been collected regarding this seemingly acrimonious relationship. Given the current political and social dynamics in Nigeria, it’s important to better understand the attitudes young people and police hold towards each other. Today, the police often pay special attention to the activities of young people, largely because of the perceived increase in youth crime in recent years. Pressure from both the media and elites on the police to crack down on young delinquents has brought about increased contact between juveniles and the police and led to the use of more aggressive forms of intervention (Alder et.al, 1992). A natural consequence of these negative interactions is mutual tension and suspicion. The negative relationship has several unsettling consequences. Young people, feeling persecuted and targeted by the police, are less likely to report criminal activities or seek out help when they are in distress. The hostile relationship also contributes to increased criminal activity among juveniles ( Alemika and Chukwuma, 2001). Young people, viewing the police with little respect or legitimacy, feel emboldened to commit criminal acts. This study was conceived against the backdrop of the palpable dangers posed to citizen safety and public order by an adversarial relationship between young people and the police. It sets out to explore and empirically determine the nature of the relationship between youths and the police in Lagos State, to establish the factors that define it, and to provide recommendations for how to improve it. Details: Lagos, Nigeria: CLEEN Foundations, 2011. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 1, 2012 at: http://www.cleen.org/Young%20people%20and%20the%20police%20in%20Lagos%20State.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Nigeria URL: http://www.cleen.org/Young%20people%20and%20the%20police%20in%20Lagos%20State.pdf Shelf Number: 127043 Keywords: Juvenile OffendersPolice LegitimacyPolice-Citizen Interactions (Nigeria)Police-Juvenile RelationsPublic Attitudes Toward the PolicePublic Opinion |
Author: Moodie, Kristina Title: "Between a rock and a hard place": Responses to Offending in Residential Childcare Summary: There is current and ongoing concern regarding the potential criminalisation of looked after young people. To address these issues, CYCJ undertook a study which aimed to: gather more data about police contact for offending by young people in children's houses; explore how practitioners make, and are supported to make, the decision to involve the police in incidents; and to survey what formal policies are in place within each local authority to aid decision making. Details: Glasgow: Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice, 2016. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 1, 2016 at: http://www.cycj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Responses-to-Offending-in-Residential-Childcare.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.cycj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Responses-to-Offending-in-Residential-Childcare.pdf Shelf Number: 145787 Keywords: At-Risk YouthJuvenile DelinquentsPolice Decision-MakingPolice-Juvenile Relations |
Author: Watts, Brad Title: Evaluability Assessment of the NAFI Youth and Police Initiative Training, Final Report Summary: This report details the results of an Evaluability Assessment of the Youth-Police Initiative (YPI) training program conducted by the Center for Human Services Research with support from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The purpose of this evaluability assessment (EA) was to gauge the YPI program's readiness for evaluation and provide recommendations and technical assistance to prepare for an outcomes-based evaluation. - A five-task EA model originally developed for criminal justice programs guided the project's research methodology. The five tasks are 1) study the program history, design, and operation; 2) watch the program in action; 3) determine the capacity for data collection; 4) assess the likelihood that the program will reach its goals and objectives; and 5) show why an evaluation will or will not help the program and its stakeholders. - The YPI program model brings together youth and police to provide training on how to interact with each other and resolve conflicts. The approach has much in common with literature on attitude toward police and police legitimacy and has some roots in conflict resolution theory. - The YPI program has evolved during a decade of operation from a police-training model to a youth-oriented approach. Program design and approach quickly evolved from a police-oriented training for recent academy graduates (after the first two rounds of implementation) to a youth-oriented program within a community-based setting. There has been some ongoing variation in the details of implementation, which could challenge efforts to evaluate the program. - The YPI program has demonstrated capacity to collect data directly from participants. Pre- and post-training surveys have been collected from youth and police participants, and the YPI program has engaged in a pilot of longer-term follow-up surveys during this study. - Past data collection has not always been consistent. The program has used varying data collection forms. As part of the study, new data collection forms utilizing fieldtested measures of attitude change have been created and implemented. - The original stated goals of the YPI program are broad and ambitious, but may be difficult to achieve. Research on similar programs suggests that it is possible to change the attitudes and behaviors of individuals, but difficult to alter community-level impacts such as outcomes related to community violence or overall rates of conflict between youth and police. - Observation of YPI program training sessions revealed that implementation mostly matches the program model. The sessions were small (14 youth, 9 officers), focused on developing youth presentation and leadership skills, and used hands-on scenarios and interactions to build relationships between police and youth over a short period of time. - YPI program data suggests that improvement in attitude has occurred amongst participating youth. Data from existing surveys was analyzed to determine if changes occurred in the desired or expected ways over time. The change in youth ratings suggests that it should be possible to measure attitude-based outcomes in a future evaluation. - Analysis of past data found no change in police attitudes. However, it should be noted that police officers generally gave the program good ratings for helping to build trust, developing positive relationships, and helping them to see youth in a more positive light. Evidence on attitude change amongst police officers participating in the YPI program was limited by the small number of surveys available. - YPI program staff and other stakeholders are interested in evaluation. The benefits of a future evaluation include continuous program improvement, the ability to provide robust evidence to interested communities and police departments, and the possibility of developing into an "evidence-based" program model. Major Recommendations - The program goals and logic model should be revised to reflect a focused set of attainable outcome goals. Many of the YPI program's original goals are ambitious but may be difficult to achieve. Suggested goals that are more tightly aligned with program activities include changing participants' attitudes, improving ability of participants to handle youth-police interactions, creating a positive training experience, reducing negative youth-police interactions, and reducing criminal involvement among youth participants. - New data collection forms and protocol should be implemented. During the study new forms were created and piloted with measures related to the suggested goals and outcomes. It is also recommended that the YPI program create and maintain a consistent database of all survey responses that will help support future evaluation efforts. - Outcomes should be measured over a longer period of time. In addition to new forms for pre/post training data collection, new draft follow-up questionnaires were also created to capture medium-to-long-term outcomes. It is recommended that these follow-up surveys be conducted with both youth and police participants approximately threemonths after the training sessions are completed. Additionally, future evaluation efforts could be aided by the collection of crime data reports on youth participants for a period of several months after program participation. Details: Albany, NY: CENTER FOR HUMAN SERVICES RESEARCH UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK. 2017. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 15, 2018 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/grants/251113.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/grants/251113.pdf Shelf Number: 149478 Keywords: Juvenile MentoringPolice LegitimacyPolice-Citizen InteractionsPolice-Community RelationsPolice-Juvenile RelationsYouth Programs |
Author: Geller, Amanda Title: Policing America's Children: Police Contact and Consequences Among Teens in Fragile Families Summary: Recent high-profile incidents of police violence and misconduct have brought widespread attention to long-standing tensions between police departments and the communities they serve. Policy shifts over the past 20 years have led to the broad adoption of "proactive" policing, which emphasizes active engagement of citizens at low levels of suspicion. Police use investigative stops, citations, and arrests to detect and disrupt low-level disorder or other circumstances interpreted as indicia that crime is afoot. However, these encounters rarely uncover illegal activity, and in many cities are characterized by stark racial disparities. Such encounters threaten the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities targeted. Due largely to data constraints, little is known about the experiences of youth stopped by the police, and the current national picture of policing and its implications for youth is unclear. I use new data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey (FFCWS) to measure the extent, nature, and health implications of police contact among a cohort of contemporary urban teenagers. I find that FFCWS teens have extensive police exposure: more than 75% report a police officer stationed at their school, and more than 25% report personal experience with the police. This contact is racially disparate, and often severe. Observed racial disparities in both a binary indicator of stop experience and a measure of police intrusion are robust to controls for adolescent behavior and their peer context. Further, I find that adolescents' experiences with the police are significantly associated with multiple indicators of adverse mental health, suggesting that police contact has the potential to drive or exacerbate health disparities among urban teens. Details: Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, 2017. Source: Internet Resource: Working Papers wp18-02-ff: Accessed May 18, 2018 at: https://ideas.repec.org/p/pri/crcwel/wp18-02-ff.html Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://ideas.repec.org/p/pri/crcwel/wp18-02-ff.html Shelf Number: 150262 Keywords: Fragile FamiliesPolice-Community InteractionsPolice-Community RelationsPolice-Juvenile RelationsProactive Policing |
Author: Liddell, Marg Title: Evaluation of the Walking Alongside Program (WAP) Summary: This report on the evaluation of the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre's (FKCLC) Walking Alongside Program (WAP) presents findings on the extent to which the outcomes of the program have fulfilled its objectives to date. The WAP is a socio-legal support program for young people of Sudanese and other African migrant/refugee backgrounds pursuing police accountability through often long-running legal actions. It was developed as an adjunct to the FKCLC's Police Accountability Project (PAP)in recognition of its client group's vulnerability and need for ongoing support. The outcome objectives this evaluation set out to measure include enhanced legal, health and educational outcomes; enhanced police accountability; improvements in health and well-being; enhanced community capacity, safety and resilience; reduction in social exclusion and barriers to justice; and whether the WAP is an effective model for replication. A qualitative approach to the evaluation was taken involving interviews and case file analysis. Academic and policy literature on the themes of hope, social exclusion, wellbeing, and community capacity was reviewed as these represent important aspects of the migrant/refugee resettlement experience. While the complexity and overlap of these concepts is acknowledged in the literature, a general consensus emerges about their core meanings, as we discuss. We also consider the literature on therapeutic jurisprudence since this principle underpins the FKCLCs approach to its work. The assumption is that legal processes and interactions can have both harmful and helpful consequences. The FKCLC clearly sees its role as remedying any harmful effects and promoting access to justice for individuals and communities in the inner west region of Melbourne and beyond. These themes are central to the WAP and highlight the important role this kind of program plays to ensure that migrants and refugees in the Flemington and Kensington area (and elsewhere) are welcomed, supported and treated as equal members of our multicultural society. That is not, however, to downplay or disregard the rich diversity within and between communities. The emphasis on participant-driven evaluation in the literature cautions against adopting predetermined constructs or measures. We acknowledge, therefore, that the construct 'refugee youth' itself "can mask the diverse ways in which a young person from a refugee background experiences the world" (Brough et al. 2003: 195): as a young black person, man, woman, migrant, refugee, African, Somalian, Sudanese, Nuer, Dinka, Shilluk, for example. The literature highlights the need to allow and encourage interviewees to give voice to their own experience, rather than impose preconceived measures upon them. Also that in-depth narrative accounts provide a rich source of qualitative data about both individual and shared experience. We prepared interview questions that were designed to elicit and capture narrative accounts of the views and experiences of WAP participants, their family members, and support professionals. Thematic content analysis of the qualitative data provided the basis for this evaluation. A total of thirteen interviews were conducted. The very low take-up rate for interviews with WAP participants - only four were possible - reflects these young people's vulnerability, disengagement, and the difficulty gaining access to this group. Some of the professionals interviewed referred to a period of six to nine months needed to gain their trust. This timeframe extended beyond that available for the evaluation. Interview data was therefore supplemented by analysis of twenty WAP files, which enabled the researchers to obtain a broader picture of the role of the youth engagement officers (YEOs) as well as a view on whether the overall objectives of the WAP had been met. Difficulties also arose in locating family members to interview, with only one coming forward. Eight professionals were interviewed: three from FKCLC, and five support professionals who worked with the same group of young people or with other disengaged youth in the Western region. Although the sample was small, data from the file analysis and individual interviews indicated that most of the objectives of the WAP were being met. Frequent accolades of the YEO, both past and current, related especially to their unconditional care and positive regard for the young people and their families, and their ability to work collaboratively with other services to provide holistic case management. Interviews with professionals reflected a deep understanding of the WAP client group and many referred to this group's vulnerability and disengagement from family, community and the service system. The professionals commented on the value of the PAP and the WAP and the importance of the notion of 'walking alongside' people engaged in protracted human rights litigation. All professionals indicated that the YEO was able to undertake tasks that they were often unable to, due to the flexibility of the YEO's role in providing unlimited and unconditional support, regardless of the client's situation. They believed that, without the YEO, many of the young people would not have pursued or continued with their police accountability cases. The advocacy role of the YEO was pivotal in raising awareness of the plight of the people linked to both the WAP and the PAP. This was reinforced with examples of over-policing and discrimination. While there were criticisms of police there were also comments that some police engaged positively with African young people in inner west Melbourne. The overwhelming view expressed was that more police needed to understand and be prepared to engage in an appropriate and respectful manner with African migrants/refugees. WAP participants interviewed indicated the value of the program, with reference to the YEO's ability to stick with them or "hang in there" with young people "no matter what." Participants felt that this helped the young people combat a sense of helplessness and to feel empowered, more confident to pursue their rights. For some this had translated into an ability to advocate for themselves and others, leading their peers in ways to effectively respond to police and to become model responsible citizens. Testament to the YEO's commitment was that WAP clients maintained and/or resumed contact with them. Support and interpretation of court proceedings by the YEO enabled the legal and non-legal proceedings to be brought together and this reduced the stress for the WAP clients. This was important for not just the FKCLC staff but for other staff working with the WAP clients. All those interviewed, including the WAP clients, felt that there was value in the WAP concept being replicated in other community legal centres. They felt that as well as human rights and police accountability cases it could be extended to support people involved in criminal and civil litigation. This was reinforced in comments that the YEO was able to provide systemic advocacy and be inclusive and collaborative in her work with a range of services, both legal and non-legal. Without the WAP the participants felt that "things would return to the way they were" and this would mean a reduction in police accountability. It would also mean that young people would have no place to go when they felt that they were being targeted or discriminated against. All interviewees referred to there being insufficient funding and time for the current YEO position. All thought that the funding should be extended as this would give the YEO greater capacity to assist more young people, as well as advocate for change in the way that young people are dealt with in legal, criminal and civil proceedings. While the data sets were small, sufficient information emerged to determine that the WAP objectives were being met, and to support the recommendation that the program be continued and extended. Recommendations From the findings of this evaluation, we recommend the following: 1. The Youth Engagement Officer (YEO) should be funded to cover more days of the week - currently the position is funded for three days. 2. Consideration should be given to employing an additional YEO. 3. The funding for the Walking Alongside Program (WAP) should be extended to include more time: - to work with police to improve the collaborative relationships between police and the young people being supported by the WAP - while this is currently being undertaken by the Chief Executive Officer of the Flemington Kensington Community Legal Centre (FKCLC) there is clearly a role for a YEO in this process; - to be able to provide support to more people over more days of the week; - to make improvements to the internal procedures in managing the cases; - so that collection of information from the point at which the Youth Engagement Officers commences contact with the Police Accountability Program and vice versa can be documented and internal file sharing and file management can be streamlined. 4. Consideration should be given for FKCLC to take a leadership and advocacy role to assist other Community Legal Centres to undertake legal and non-legal advocacy work. This could include: - Human rights and public interest litigation - Criminal and civil litigation. This emphasis should be on the collaborative role of the YEO to facilitate, support and advocate for program participants' access to the range of services required to meet their wider social and emotional needs. 5. FKCLC and the YEO should use these findings to continue to raise awareness, as Higgs (2013) suggests, of: - the value of giving young people hope to develop pathways away from behaviours that are harmful to themselves and others; - the need to recognise and acknowledge injustices that many young people experience and work to remedy these to improve their overall well-being; - the need to establish more inclusionary practices so that young people can feel part of a community of care, within the broader community. 6. Recognising that the FKCLC has helped clients to become advocates and peer leaders, we recommend this model be expanded to train other young people as mentors to work alongside the YEO and the community. 7. While the study was small there were sufficient comments on police behaviour to suggest that police training be enhanced to include anti-bias training. A recent example of six young African men being asked to leave an Apple store suggests that such bias is a wider community problem. 8. Further qualitative research (such as life narratives and participant observations- see Fangen 2010) is required to explore and raise awareness of the problems African youth and their families encounter in settling in a new country, given the traumatic experiences they have often faced in their home country. Details: Melbourne: RMIT University, 2015. 72p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 31, 2018 at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diana_Johns/publication/304269475_Evaluation_of_the_Walking_Alongside_Program_WAP/links/576b612808aef2a864d211ae/Evaluation-of-the-Walking-Alongside-Program-WAP.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Australia URL: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diana_Johns/publication/304269475_Evaluation_of_the_Walking_Alongside_Program_WAP/links/576b612808aef2a864d211ae/Evaluation-of-the-Walking-Alongside-Program-WAP.pdf Shelf Number: 150413 Keywords: Asylum SeekersMigrantsPolice AccountabilityPolice-Citizen InteractionsPolice-Community RelationsPolice-Juvenile RelationsRefugees |