Professor Ursula Kilkelly to Host Public Lecture on Positive Youth Justice at Trinity College Dublin

14 Sep 2018

The lecture will be delivered by Professor Stephen Case - Professor of Criminology at Loughborough University - and followed by panel discussion featuring Professor Ursula Kilkelly, Professor Mary Rogan & Dr Katharina Swirak

Irish youth justice policy and practice has made major strides over the past 15 years. Legislative and policy reform and substantial investment have created a youth justice system that is largely progressively and in line with international human rights standards and accepted principles of good practice. The imminence of new law and policy reform suggest that it is timely to consider the future direction of national policy in this area.

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Professor Case will deliver a keynote address on his research on the ‘Positive Youth Justice’ framework, how it was developed and how it is being used to advocate youth justice reform in England and Wales. This will be followed by discussion chaired by Professor Ursula Kilkelly, together with colleagues Dr Katharina Swirak (UCC) and Professor Mary Rogan (TCD).

The Children First, Offenders Second (CFOS) model evolves contemporary youth justice beyond its contemporary risk focus and promotes a principled, progressive and practical approach to the treatment of children in the Youth Justice System. The measurement, assessment and amelioration of the risk children present to themselves and others underpins and drives contemporary youth justice processes in the UK and internationally. However, the utility of the risk paradigm has been over-stated, it is insufficient in its evidence-base and it is incapable of sustaining the faith placed in it as the guiding principle for animating youth justice practice. Nevertheless, there is at present no consensus about what approach to youth justice should or can replace risk as the driver of policy and practice.

About the Speaker

Stephen Case’s primary research interests are youth justice, youth crime prevention, children’s rights and social justice, particularly the promotion of positive, children first ways of working with children embroiled in the Youth Justice System. He has conducted associated research for the ESRC, Home Office, Youth Justice Board, Welsh Government and the Leverhulme Trust. He has published widely on the topic of positive youth justice, most notably in Youth Justice Journal (cf. Case and Haines 2018), has co-authored the book ‘Positive Youth Justice: Children First, Offenders Second’ (Haines and Case 2015) and has most recently published ‘Youth Justice: A Critical Introduction’ (Case 2018). He is also a Director of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice and sits on the steering group of the Association of Panel Members.

Thursday September 27th 2018, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Venue: Room 2041B - Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin

CPD: 1.5 hours

All welcome

Please register here to attend.