Tough talk: Youth offenders' perceptions of communicating in the youth justice system in New Zealand

Abstract

Young people in the Youth Justice system have been found to have poorer language skills than their non-offending peers. These young people must rely primarily on their oral language skills to navigate through the system, which is one that includes a wide range of professionals, each with their own jargon. However research into the nature of these communication contexts as well as the development of SLT services to support the language needs of young people in the Youth Justice setting are both in their infancy in NZ. One of the areas that has been barely researched is that which taps the experiences and opinions of this vulnerable group of young people towards communication. The Youth Justice Action Plan emphasises listening to the voices of young people, as a basis for the partnership which is essential to supporting their communication skills and delivering effective intervention. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study which interviewed eight males, aged 16 to 17 years, from one youth justice residence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted one on one; thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The results of this study confirmed a number of suspicions about how many barriers to effective communication these young people were experiencing. All of the young people indicated that they had difficulty when talking with some of the professionals in the Youth Justice system. The presentation will outline what they identified as causing the difficulties, and what helped them. The implications of these findings for SLT practice in working with the young people or professionals in the Youth Justice system will be discussed.