Youth Offending Team
Court Services
Offering Interventions
Lancashire Youth Offending Team is committed to offering interventions to Young People who offend and there bye enter the criminal justice system. In doing so we seek to reduce the risk of them re-offending. We expect all our interventions to:
- Have a theoretical framework
- Involve a thorough assessment of the Young person's needs
- Target offending behaviour
- Offer structured programmes
- Be cognitive behavioural in approach
- Be community based
- Have programme integrity
There are already many forms of interventions in use and although some programmes of work are currently available to practitioners work continues to ensure our practitioners offer appropriate and therefore effective evidence based interventions to our service users.
'Our progammes seek to encourage offenders to develop new thinking and skills which they can apply to real life.'
James McGuire. Cognitive Behavioural approaches. Home Office 2000.
Some examples of interventions.
Subject: Consequences
Method; The young person is presented with a large sheet of paper and asked to imagine it is a pool of water. An analogy is made between a pool of water with a stone thrown into the middle and the affects of a crime on the life of the young person. Using this anology the ripples on a pool reflect the consequences of the young person's action.
Objective This is a session when young people can readily identify the affect that their actions have and how the consequences can often be long lasting.
Subject: Feelings
Method Draw a large 'Jelly baby' shape on a large sheet of paper and ask the young person to make a list of the feelings 'victims' may feel. These feelings are then transferred to the Jelly Baby outline thus fear, for example, may be highlighted at shaking knees or dry mouth.
Objective To help the young person understand that such feelings are real and that people are actively affected by crime.
Subject: Letter writing
Method Young person is invited to write a letter to his/her victim with or without the intention of posting it.
Objective Two fold. The letter can be sent as written as a direct apology, or it can also be used to challenge thinking mistakes within the letter. Examples of this are "I don't know why I did it" or "I hope I never do it again".
It must be stressed that the success or failure of sessions such as these depends very much on the skills and techniques of the worker. They can be employed in one to one work or within groups. They will however only be as useful, meaningful and effective as the facilitators are able to make them. Workers ought to be fully prepared for such work, able to offer empathy, respect and congruence to effect change in young people.