Aisling Reidy presents at North South Criminology Conference

Aisling Reidy (SLSS Hub, University of Limerick) presented ‘’No Wrong Door’: Exploring service delivery and complexity through the voices of young people, parents, and frontline professionals’ at the North South Criminology Conference this week in Maynooth University.  The Conference in its 16th year hosts academic sessions on many aspects of criminology, including Pathways to Offending for Young People, Community Safety, Crime and Security, Young Adulthood and the Justice System and many more.

Aisling’s presentation looked at the following:

Research suggests that young people with complex needs figure significantly in the youth justice system, both as victims and offenders (Dowse et al. 2014; Aderibigbe 1996; Butler and Allnut 2003; Kenny et al. 2006; Reed and Lyne 2000). The purpose of this PhD study is to explore the suitability and adequacy of local services and service delivery through the engagement experiences of young people by adopting a case study research design. Six areas in Ireland have been identified as trial locations for developing and cultivating collaborative service delivery approach for young people with complex needs based on a ‘no wrong door’ (nwd) approach. NWD is described in Ireland’s National Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 as when a young person or family engages any service, they should have accessible pathways to other supports they may need (IRL DOJ 2021). This study aims to inform the development of the ‘nwd’ approach in the nwd trial sites by incorporating the voices of young people, parents, and frontline professionals. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify the essential features and characteristics of a ‘no wrong door’ approach to act as a reference point for examining the experiences of young people, parents, and practitioners. Semi-structured interviews are currently being conducted to explore the perspectives of participants in one ‘nwd’ trial site. Participants will be 10 young people, aged 18-20 years old, described as ‘harder to reach’, parents, and frontline professionals. Findings of the systematic literature review will be presented at the conference along with preliminary findings from the semi[1]structured interviews.