There are problems in relying too much on half-baked science to determine  youth justice policy, programmes and practice, according to Dr Seán Redmond of the University of Limerick.

Speaking to the Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development (ACJRD) annual conference on 5 October 2018 on the contribution of scientific evidence to youth justice reform in Ireland, he said that the advancement in our knowledge is much more creeping and less assured than is accepted.

We need to develop methods to deal with this and enable front-line staff need to feel equipped and supported to make complex judgments, Dr Redmond said.

We also should be more humble about the contribution we can make in helping young people to deal with adversity rather than claiming overall impact, he said. 

Often, learning to cope with things we can’t always control and making small but significant changes is the most important contribution youth professionals can make, he pointed out.

Developing ‘soft skills’ with troubled young people to help them deal with risks and adversities in their lives rather than changing their external environment, is a more realistic approach, he said.

Inflexible solutions

Dr Redmond added that the scientific community can be too quick to develop inflexible solutions, tying up capital, technological and human resources based on “assured” evidence which experience has shown is subsequently refuted and de-bunked.

“We should be less on ‘transmit’ and more on ‘receive’, figuring out what the problem is before providing answers, particularly in complex areas of youth justice policy.

“We need to future-proof practice with young people so that front line practitioners are equipped to make better judgments, recognising that scientific truths can change over time,” he said.