WHY DO YOUTHS IN CARE OFFEND AND REOFFEND?

by w1266832 (student)

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Research topic:

The link between young offenders in care and youth offending is not a well-documented in contemporary society, drawing on the BBC news (2011) it states that the majority of the 1,600 young people that are retained in young offenders institutions within England and Whales are either in care homes or have been in care homes. Though this has been established very little has been done to find out the core reason as to why youths in care offend to begin with and why then with the support care homes provide do these young individuals re-offend?.

Research question:

The central question that I will be looking at is why do young people in care offend and re-offend? To be able to answer this question it is important to look at why certain young people are in care to begin with? Why do youths in care behave in unacceptable ways? Is their behaviour a reaction to bad past experiences? Concentrating on literature by Wickliffe (2012) ‘why juveniles commit crime’ Wickliffe discusses some of the core reasons why individuals are drawn to crime Wickliffe explains that this varies from bad parenting, bad family experiences and peer pressures. Along with this a broad literature review will be undertaken to explore effectively the possible issues that contribute to youths offending and re-offending.

Nature of participants:

I will be interviewing 4 males and 4 female participants from care home within Tower Hamlets, aged between 16-19. Also, I will be interviewing 1 male and 1 female support worker to have an insight into their understanding.

Ethical considerations:

I will explain the nature of my research to the participants, I will explain that all information will remain confidential and participants will be anonymous. I will explain how the research will be conducted and what will happen to the information once it has been used. Once this has been explained I will give them the option ...