Scott, A (2024) “That’s just stuff on paper”: A comparative case study of how restorative justice is operationalised to adapt and resist youth justice policy. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Abstract

This thesis draws upon data gathered in a comparative case study of how youth justice practitioners understand and make sense of restorative justice as part of their roles. Restorative justice has become a staple feature within youth justice in England and Wales, and its advance to the forefront of youth crime responses has seen some Youth Offending Teams adopt it as the ideological practice bedrock (Smith and Gray, 2019; StahlKopf, 2008). However, research has shown that youth justice policy rarely reflects diverging practices at implementation (Morris, 2015; Souhami, 2007) and that organisational culture may inform restorative practices more than policy (Stahlkopf, 2008). The research centres on a Youth Offending Team in 2015, where one team relocated to a police station, and data shows that ideological divergences have emerged between the staff teams that reflect their cultural surroundings. Christie’s (1977) Conflict as Property is understood as the foundation of restorative ideology. From this, Cohen’s (1985) social control framework is used to test the extent to which restorative justice typifies Cohen’s warnings that even seemingly progressive initiatives invariably become consumed by the harmful nature of criminal justice. From a Bourdieusian analysis, the findings add to a body of research highlighting pressures experienced by public penal-welfare agencies to present performance efficiencies whilst attempting to retain their grasp on welfare ideals. Whilst both sites feel the strains of juggling contradicting welfare and justice priorities, data revealed contrasting operational coping strategies to manage those competing pressures that have differing effects on restorative practices. Data shows that restorative justice is revealed in multiple ways, contingent on organisational needs and occupational cultures. At an occupational level, at one site, practice embodied practitioners’ youth justice ideologies, which would later be administratively defined as restorative regardless. Organisationally, restorative justice is an administrative tool used to communicate in languages of efficiency and criminal justice to external stakeholders. However, whilst administrative restorative justice was used at one site to authenticate practices documented elsewhere as messy youth justice practices (Morris, 2015), at the second site, administrative restorative justice transcended its organisational needs to consume practitioners, restrict discretion and standardise their practices.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Youth Justice; Restorative Justice; Occupational Culture; Youth Justice Policy; Youth Justice Practice; Occupational Typologies; Social Control; Bourdieusian Theory; Ethnography; Starting Native
Subjects:	K Law > K Law (General) H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV7231 Criminal Justice Administrations
Divisions:	Law
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	08 Nov 2024 17:06
Last Modified:	08 Nov 2024 17:06
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00024635
Supervisors:	Millings, M
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/24635

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