Taking Account of Maturity - Disability Justice Project · research and theory. The current knowledge base in this area supports the inclusion of an understanding of maturity within

A Guide for Probation Practitioners

Taking Accountof Maturity

The Institute of Applied Social Studies IASS at the University of Birmingham is aninternationally leading centre for research, teaching and learning. Its research seeks toexplore how policy and practice can contribute to making a difference to people’s lives –particularly those who may face disadvantage or social exclusion. The Institute drawstogether expertise from across the fields of social policy, social work and community justiceand has extensive experience of undertaking commissioned research for a wide range offunders including Government departments, charitable trusts and third sector organisations.

The Transition to Adulthood Alliance www.t2a.org.uk is a coalition of 12 criminaljustice, health and youth organisations, which identifies and promotes more effectiveways of working with young adults throughout the criminal justice process. Convened bythe Barrow Cadbury Trust (BCT) since 2008, its membership encompasses Addaction,Catch22, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Clinks, the Criminal Justice Alliance,the Howard League for Penal Reform, Nacro, the Prince’s Trust, the Prison Reform Trust,Revolving Doors Agency, the Young Foundation, and YoungMinds.

Who has produced this guide

Follow @T2Aalliance

Follow@barrowcadbury

[email protected]

Acknowledgements

This guide has been produced by the Institute for Applied Social Studies at the Universityof Birmingham, and was funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust as part of its Transition toAdulthood (T2A) programme.

The authors would like to thank London Probation Trust and Staffordshire and WestMidlands Probation Trust for piloting this guide before publication.

A word of caution

The Guide draws principally upon the available research concerning maturity as it relatesto young adults who offend, research which is captured in Maturity, young adults andcriminal justice: A literature review (Prior et al., 2011). The writers of the Guide are awarethat there are other bodies of research about the development and behaviour of youngadults that may have relevance and practitioners can of course apply suchunderstandings alongside the more focussed content of the Guide.

Taking Account of Maturity

www.barrowcadbury.org.uk

The Barrow Cadbury Trust is an independent, charitable foundation, committed tosupporting vulnerable and marginalised people in society.

The Trust provides grants to grassroots voluntary and community groups working indeprived communities in the UK, with a focus on Birmingham and the Black Country. It also works with researchers, think tanks and government, often in partnership with othergrant-makers, seeking to overcome the structural barriers to a more just and equal society.

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How to use this guide

THE GUIDE CONSISTS OF THREE SECTIONS:

INTRODUCTION – Role of the guide andan exploration of the concept of maturity,why it is important and its implications forpractice

THE GUIDE ITSELF – A practical guide forpractitioners to take account of maturityissues when undertaking OASysassessments of young adults

IMPLEMENTING THE ASSESSMENT –Explaining the maturity assessment findingsin pre-sentence reports (PSR) and thencreating the subsequent sentence plan forthe young adult

The guide is particularly aimed at supportingprobation practitioners completing initial OASysassessments and PSRs on people aged 18-24.

Part 3

Part 2

Part 1

Introduction: Taking account of maturity: A guide for probation practitioners

Part 1


Since 2011, adult sentencing guidelines published by the Sentencing Council for Englandand Wales have stated that consideration should be given to ‘lack of maturity’ as apotential mitigating factor in sentencing decisions for adults. Furthermore, since early2013, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), in its new Code of Conduct, has for the firsttime included maturity as a factor for consideration of culpability as part of its publicinterest test. These changes to policy and practice have significant implications for agenciesworking with young adult offenders throughout the criminal justice process, including thepolice, the CPS, the probation service, sentencers and practitioners delivering services.

The concept of maturity and its implications for work with young adultsin the Criminal Justice System


Why is this an important concept for criminal justicepractitioners?In England and Wales, the age of18 has been the point fordetermining whether criminaljustice agencies respond witheither juvenile or adult law. The T2A Alliance and others haveargued that this sudden switchbetween youth and adult justicedoes not recognise variability ofmaturity nor that young people inthe transition to adulthood require specific, tailored support throughthis process of change. Maturity can be influenced by life experiencesand also individual characteristics. Individual young adults may developskills and capacities associated with maturity in some areas of theirlives more readily than in others. Furthermore, in terms of offending,not only does this age-group experience high levels of recidivism but itis also one when many individuals naturally stop offending (Prior et al.,2011). The late teenage years are the peak age for offending, but alsothe time when a young adult is most likely to desist from crime.

Young adulthood is a crucial opportunity for criminal justice agenciesto get their interventions right. A responsive service that takes intoaccount aspects of diversity should take youth into account tounderstand offending behaviour and then to plan and deliverappropriate interventions. For the 18-24 year old age group, the levelof maturity of an individual, therefore, is a valid and significant factorto be considered when sentencing and subsequently working withthem to deliver interventions which support their pathway todesistance.

By understanding how a young person’s level of maturity has affectedhis or her offending behaviour, services can respond appropriately tohelp the individual develop personal and social resources, and bymaking the design and delivery of services more effective andencouraging a more engaged response from the young personthemselves, breach and reconviction rates can be reduced.

Despite making up only 9.5%cent of the population, youngadults represent a third ofpeople sentenced to custodyeach year and make up a thirdof the Probation service’scaseload (T2A, 2012: 21)

(The) concept of maturity is self-evidently not the same asbiological age. Blowing out thecandles on an 18th birthday cakedoes not magically transformanyone into a fully functioningand mature adult – even withoutthe life disadvantages manyyoung people in criminal justicehave experienced (T2A, 2012:2)

What is meant by theconcept of maturityMaturity is a core, developmentalconcept which addresses theprocesses through which a youngperson achieves the status ofadulthood. These developmentalprocesses include the interactionsbetween physical, intellectual,neurological, emotional and socialdevelopment. Although physicaland intellectual development isusually completed duringadolescence, for some peopleemotional and social maturationcan continue into the early tomid-twenties. Young adults oftendiffer from each other because oftheir variable maturity and thesedifferences often showthemselves in the ways in whichindividuals manage the multipletransitions which are associatedwith the journey to adulthood.

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Taking Account of Maturity 3

Prosecution

Sentencers

PSR writers

Court officers

Offender managers

Staff in YOIs and othercustodial settings

Relevant to...Why is maturity relevant?

To ensure context of offending is fullyunderstood.

To ensure proposals to court are asaccurate and well-informed as possible.

Sentencers (when selecting from a range of proposals)

Prosecution

Defence

Court officers

PSR writers

To ensure that sentence choices arebased on the best information.

To ensure that young adults have thecapacity to understand and complywith the sentence.

Offender managers

Staff supervisingindividuals in YOIsand prisons

To facilitate the design of appropriateindividually-tailored interventions,including the content, duration andformal requirements.

Offender managers

Staff supervisingindividuals in YOIs andother custodial settings

Partner organisationsworking collaborativelywith probation servicesto deliver interventions

To ensure that programme designers anddeliverers take account of the diversity ofyoung adults when deciding whatapproaches and methods to employ.

To incorporate considerations of maturityin services for young adults.

Assessment

Stage of the criminaljustice process

Sentencing

Disposal

Delivery

When and how is maturity relevant in the criminal justice process?Judgements about the level of maturity need to inform decisions about:

23% of those sentenced in Magistrates’ Courts in 2010 were young adults aged 18-24...and35% of those sentenced in the Crown Courts. (T2A, 2012: 21)

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Role of the guide


Positively supporting young adults in the Criminal Justice process: the GuideUnderstanding maturity as it affects the behaviour of young adults will help probation service staff andother criminal justice professionals to make more rounded and informed assessments, provide programmesof intervention and engage individuals and make a positive contribution to their longer term desistancefrom offending.

How can the Guide help practitioners to do this?The guide is intended to enable probation practitioners, using the OASys tool, to recognise and obtainevidence that a young adult’s level of maturity may be relevant to their offending behaviour and formjudgments about how this might inform the information analysis and proposals in PSRs and the initialsentence/supervision planning process.

The Guide equips assessors to reach a professional judgment about maturity, informed by up-to-dateresearch and theory. The current knowledge base in this area supports the inclusion of an understanding ofmaturity within a holistic assessment of the individual.

The knowledge base is still developing and assessors should be aware that more needs to be known aboutmaturity and how it is linked to other theoretical perspectives. For example, how is maturity influenced byfamily experiences, including the strength of attachments, by culture or by a variety of developmentaldifficulties such as learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autistic spectrum disorders,and traumatic brain injury. For these young adults, maturity may be significantly hindered or delayed. It isnot within the scope of this guide to cover such difficulties in detail. Practitioners need to be aware of theirpotential influence and any indicators of possible undiagnosed developmental or learning difficulties shouldbe referred for specialist assessment. Hence, this guide is not meant to be exhaustive and is likely to besuperseded by new learning over time.

It should also be noted that currently there is not sufficient evidence to make definitive statements aboutthe significance of gender differences or the influence of race and culture upon maturity.

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The Guide therefore encourages an individualised approach whichemphasises understanding the specific ‘lived experiences’ of eachyoung adult. A psychosocial understanding is important for all youngadults but may be especially relevant to young women and youngadults from different racial and/or cultural backgrounds.

Using this Guide to support an OASys assessmentAs OASys is the core assessment process used in both prisons andcommunity, it seemed most helpful to produce guidance that supportsmore effective use of that tool to make judgments about maturity.Linking the Guide to this specific process does, however, also raisesome points for consideration:

• Sections of the OASys assessment may generate evidence that ayoung adult lacks maturity particularly in relation to his or heroffending behaviour. As part of the professional judgment, thepractitioner will need to bring together his/her assessment of thedifferent aspects of the individual’s thinking and offendingbehaviour (and how these interact with each other) in order todevelop a picture of the whole person and the behaviour incontext. In general, the assessor is looking for patterns ofbehaviour and thinking and clusters of indicators which suggestsuch patterns.

• OASys is a risk-based assessment tool; this practice guide,however, seeks to stress the importance of not solely seeing 18-24 year olds as problematic, but seeing also their potential forgrowth and change. The Guide emphasises the importance ofusing this positive strengths based approach in interviews withyoung adults and sentence planning.

• For those offenders who have recently been involved with YouthOffending Services, the Asset assessment is likely to be asignificant source of relevant information. Practitioners may wishto look at the Youth Justice Board’s ‘Youth to Adult TransitionsFramework’ (YJB, 2012).

Practitioners should be aware that maturity, depending on its levelof development, can be regarded as both a mitigating factor if ayoung adult lacks it, and sometimes as an element that mayincrease risk. On the whole it is likely that a more accurateunderstanding of maturity in an individual case canenhance the accuracy of the risk assessment andsuggest effective ways of working with thatindividual to manage their risk. An understandingof maturity is also likely to help the practitionerto adopt methods and approaches whichsupport positive engagement.


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In a Com Res and T2APoll, 69% of the publicsupported the ideathat maturity shouldbe taken into accont inthe sentencing ofyoung adults. 81% ofMPs agreed bothgroups rankedmaturity as a moreimportant factor forconsideration than age.(Com Res, Feb 2011)

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What key dimensions of maturity in young adults are relevant to offending?Judgments about levels of maturity will be based upon observations of how far along individuals are on theirjourneys to adulthood, the affect of influences around them and the choices they make. Such observationsshould be made in a consistent and systematic way as part of a rigorous assessment process but they are notprecise measurements. Instead, informed judgments will be made in the context of what is known about thedevelopmental characteristics of young adults drawn from the fields of neuroscience, psychology andcriminology, the types of behaviour that young adults are more inclined to be involved in, and the demandsof society through steadily increasing rights, responsibilities and expectations.

Although the focus on maturity and offending behaviour is a relatively new area of study (Prior et al., 2011),there are some identifiable dimensions that are helpful to understanding young adults’ offending behaviour:


• How an individual makes decisions. Threekey characteristics of decision-making havebeen identified: temperance, which isthe ability to evaluate the consequences ofdifferent courses of action before making adecision to act in response to theassessment of a situation, to limitimpulsivity and control aggressiveresponses and risk-taking; responsibility,the ability to act independently, be self-reliant and have a clear sense of personalidentity and perspective, the ability to

understand and consider the views ofothers before taking a decision to act andto understand the wider context in whichthe decision to act is made. Of these it isthe element of temperance that is mostlikely to be underdeveloped in this agegroup (Prior et al., 2011: 10);

• A person’s level of personaldevelopment in terms of the consistentapplication of higher order skills ofemotional management, planning andcontrol of impulses

• The impact of their social environmentand relationships including family andpeer relationships, their experience ofeducation and employment, financial andsocial resources and the extent to whichthe person has been able to move towardsa stable adult lifestyle; and

• These elements of course interact witheach other and shape offending choices,the motives, circumstances, types andpatterns of offending.

An assessment aboutmaturity needs to provide aholistic understanding of the

individual, their social context and theinteraction between different

elements. Different sections ofOASys will need to be understood

interactively to provide arobust picture of the

influence of maturity onoffending behaviour.

Thinking andBehaviour

EmotionalWell-being

Financesand income

Education, trainingand Employability

RelationshipsAlcohol Misuse

Lifestyle and Associates

Attitudes

Drug Misuse

Offending Analysis

Accommodation

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SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT AND RELATIONSHIPS

DIMENSIONS AFFECTING OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR

CHARACTERISTICS OF DECISION-MAKING

TEMPERANCE RESPONSIBILITY • PERSPECTIVE

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Taking account of maturity as part of anOASys assessment

Part 2

By implementing the process of taking account of maturity that follows as part of anOASys assessment, probation practitioners should be able to provide a more informedassessment and proposal for the courts, which may in turn lead to a more effectivesentence. Each section of the table below includes suggested questions (in italics)followed by some analytical perspectives to help make sense of the information gatheredand ways of exploring issues further. This process will be particularly relevant to OASysassessments of young adults aged 18-24, but may also be relevant to older offenders.

Has this person experiencedsignificant periods of time incustody or in care?

If the answer is ‘yes’, you couldexplore further to see if thoseexperiences have affecteddevelopmental maturity.

Does this person’s offendingtend to occur in groups, or inspecific situations?

Is the offending influenced byalcohol?

If the answers tend towards‘yes’, you may be seeing signsof poor impulse control and / orimmature social networks.

Has the individual hadopportunities to experiencepositive transitions? Are there significant gaps inthe offending history?

In looking at the history of all offending, you maybegin to find and be able toexplore circumstances whenthe young adult was able toresist/avoid offending.

This section concerns basichistorical and factualinformation but it can, in avery limited way, provideevidence whether, in aparticular case, care or custody is likely to havedamaged or delayed maturity.

Signs of a lack ofmaturity

Additional Considerations

Relevant OASysSection

Potential signs of alack of maturity



Potential signs ofa lack of maturity

Additionalconsiderationsincluding signs of maturity

Relevant OASys section and significant components ofmaturity that may be identified


Social transitionsto adulthood

Analysis of offences2Overall psychosocialmaturity

1 Offending Information

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If the person has yet to achievea successful transition toadulthood this may impact ontheir attitude to themselves.


2Analysis of offencesContd.

In their account of their offence(s)does the individual minimise theirinvolvement, distance themselvesfrom, or seek to avoid takingresponsibility?

If ‘yes’ to some or all of thesequestions it may suggest areluctance to recogniseconsequences of offending,indicative of a lack of maturity.

Has the offending behaviourbegun to change? For example Is there moreevidence of the person taking a planned approach?

Is the person more likely nowto offend alone?

If the answers here tendtowards ‘yes’ these might be indicators that a lack ofmaturity, impulsivity andimmature networks is lessrelevant.

Is this person livingindependently, or in the family home?

Are they living in stable orunstable accommodation?

If lacking in independence, orif accommodation is unstable, why is this? Is this due tocircumstances outside of theircontrol, or their ownbehaviour and decisionmaking?

What role do they play intheir accommodation? Dothey pay rent or contribute inother ways?

Not having independentaccommodation could be anindicator of a lack of planningfor the future, or avoidance ofadult responsibilities. It couldallow the individual to remainembedded in immature socialnetworks, or over-reliance onfamily members, reinforcing alack of maturity in thinking.

Accommodation

Social transitions toadulthood

Planning

3Making steps towardsstable living arrangements,independent of family oforigin, could be a sign ofdeveloping maturity,particularly if those stepsare planned. The reversecould of course be true forsome young adults whowant to leave home to liveindependently, but haven’treally thought this through.

Even if this person is livingat home they may beplaying a mature role withinthe family by, for example,supporting the family’sfinances. They may beplanning for a move fromhome that they currentlycan’t afford.




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How is a lack of engagementwith education, or the adultworld of work, affecting thisperson?

What kind of decisions is thisindividual making abouteducation and training?

Has this person beendisengaged from education/training/employment for asignificant period of time?

Answers to these questionsmight provide evidence of a lackof planning and emotional/impulsive decision-makingabout training and employment.

Does this person have asignificant learning difficulty?Is this person engaging inplanned approaches to accesstraining or employment?

By the age of 18 mostpeople’s cognitive /intellectual abilities are fully developed. Learningdifficulties are very significantfor assessment, and shouldbe separate from aconsideration of maturity indecision making.As with other sections,engaging in plannedapproaches to finding andmaintaining employmentcould indicate developingmaturity of judgment

Education, trainingand Employability

How is this person managingtheir finances?

Large debts or impulsivity inmoney management e.g.spending all their income assoon as it is obtained might beindicative of a lack of maturity.

Good money managementmay indicate developingmaturity.

Does this individual havedamaging or poor relationships?

Do they change intimaterelationships regularly?

Are they dealing with anyadditional difficulties?

Poor emotional regulation andimpulse control may harmrelationships and can beindicative of a lack of maturityand its influence on behaviour in relationships. Difficulties inrelationships for other reasonsmay also impact on the youngadult’s opportunities fordeveloping maturity.

Has this person successfullyestablished a stable adultrelationship?

Have they experienceddifficulties in theirrelationships that they havesuccessfully dealt with?

If answers tend towards‘yes’ in either case this mayindicate increased maturity,although the nature ofthese relationships wouldneed to be understood inmore depth.

Financial Managementand Income

Relationships

Emotional regulation

Impulse control

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Social transitions toadulthood

Planning

Emotional Regulationand impulse control

Impulse control



Is there evidence of impulsivity intheir response to the influence ofcriminal associates?

Is there evidence of impulsivitythrough engagement in risktaking activities?

Do they spend significant timewith pro-criminal social groupings?

If the answers tend to be ‘yes’ thismay indicate a lack of maturity.

Maturity of judgment may also be affected by the social contextinfluenced by who the personspends time with.

Does this person play aleading role in a group?

Is there evidence of plannedand purposeful offending?

Answers that tend towards‘yes’ may suggest mature, ifanti-social, functioning,even if they are operating inan immature social context.

Social context

Impulse control

Impulse control

Planning

Motivation

Is there a history of significantcannabis misuse and is thiscontinuing?

Is their misuse of any drugs linkedto pro-criminal social groupings?

What is their motivation to changedrug-misusing behaviour?

There is some evidence thatcannabis use may delay maturity.Involvement with drug misusinggroups may make the individualmore prone to risk taking.Impulsive thinking and difficulties in planning as inthinking and behaviour may alsoreduce motivation to addresssubstance misuse issues.

Has this person decreasedtheir use any illegal drugsignificantly?

This may be an indicator ofmaturity developing andchanges in this behaviour ofitself can be a support tothe development ofincreased maturity.

Drug Misuse8

Alcohol Misuse9

Has this person changed theirpattern of alcoholconsumption, showing signsof more responsible use?

There may be links here tothe development of morestable personal relationshipsand perhaps less relianceupon more casual groupings.

Is their alcohol misuse linked topro-criminal social groupings?

If the answers tend to be ‘yes’this may be an indicator ofimmaturity and propensity forrisk taking, as in Lifestyle andAssociates and Drug Misuseabove.






Lifestyle and Associates7

Impulse control

Planning

Motivation

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Impulse control

Planning

Motivation

Do they tend to binge drink?

If the answers tend to be ‘yes’this may be an indicator ofimmaturity and propensity forrisk taking, as in Lifestyle andAssociates and drug misuseabove.

Do they, for example, makejudgements about whenand how often to drinkalcohol or balance the costwith other commitmentsthey might have?

Is there evidence of theindividual become lessdependent upon alcohol intheir social relationships?

There may be links here tothe development of morestable personal relationshipsand perhaps less relianceupon more casualgroupings.


Impulse control

Transitions

Emotional Well-being10

Alcohol MisuseContd.

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Does this individual display pooremotional self-management?

Are their feelings and thinkingin conflict?

How do they describethemselves (positively ornegatively)?

Poor emotional managementand a failure to successfullyintegrate emotional andcognitive functioning may beindicative of a lack of maturity. If the person has yet to achievea successful transition toadulthood this may impact ontheir attitude to themselves.

In responding tochallenging situations intheir life has the youngadult shown that they canrecognise, stop and thinkabout and then managedifficult feelings? Do theyhave coping strategies tofall back on in difficultemotional situations?

There may be circumstancesin which the individual hasbeen able to demonstratea capacity to resist theimpulse to react negativelyor where they havecontrolled themselves. For some this may be anindication of developingmaturity that can bedeveloped further insupervision.







Impulse control

Planning


This section of OASys is veryimportant. It has the greatestrange of questions related tothe concept of temperance withlinks to impulsivity and thinking through consequences.

The questions in this part of theOASys tool, about impulsivity,temper control, problem solvingskills and consequences, are all of direct relevance to evidencinga lack of maturity.

Demonstrating anunderstanding of other people’spoints of view and concretethinking will be less relevant toa judgement of maturity,perhaps apart from the veryyoungest in this age group, asthey are likely to be developedby around the age of 18.

Are their patterns ofthinking and behaviourinconsistent, with someevidence of them being ableto think less impulsively onoccasions?

It is worth considering,particularly for individuals atthe higher end of the agerange, to what extent thepatterns of thinking andbehaviour are evidence of alack of maturity and towhat extent they are habitsthat have becomeembedded. In other wordshas the young adultbecome used to behaving inparticular ways, eventhough maturity hasdeveloped.

Thinking andBehaviour11

Does this person have pro-criminal and negativeattitudes towards theircommunity?

Do they have a history of poorcompliance with court ordersand statutory services?

These may be evidence of alack of maturity, particularly ifrooted in an immature andpro-criminal social context.

Poor compliance may beevidence of impulsivity.

Attitudes12

Are there examples of timeswhen this person hascomplied and/or respondedpositively to servicesprovided? Do they expresspositive attitudes to anyspecific people or agencies?

These may suggestdeveloping maturity.






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Implementing the assessment

Part 3

Improving PSRs and recommendations to sentencersDeveloping an understanding of maturity by using the process in Part 2 can enhance the quality andhelpfulness of the PSR. This section describes how that can have a positive impact on assessments,proposals and sentence-planning, which can result in a better-informed decision-making process and a more effective sentence.

Assessment

Understanding maturity can...

Inform the offence analysis, suggesting how psychological immaturity interacts withsocial contexts to make offending more likely.

Inform risk assessment and defensible decision making, by improving the analysis of theevidence base for judgements being made.

Help to identify specific evidence which supports, or rejects, a finding that a lack ofmaturity is likely to be relevant to this person’s offending.

Inform a discussion, probably in the Offender Assessment of the PSR, about specificaspects of maturity relevant to the individual rather than labelling the person asimmature. Help highlight the specific needs of individuals who have not yet developedfull maturity and support a realistic approach to issues of compliance and the kinds oforder that could help the individual participate successfully in the supervision process.

Encourage a positive approach to those aspects of ‘youthfulness’ which could otherwisebe framed as potential risk factors and obstacles to compliance.


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Proposals

Taking account of maturity in proposals to the court can...

Inform your argument for specific interventions that support developing maturity

Highlight the interactive nature of psychosocial maturity and produce proposals thatsupport the development of successful transitions and the development of positivepersonal and social resources

Argue for specific referral to appropriate services

Explain explicitly the logic underlying the proposed intervention(s).

Making the Pre-Sentence Report more effective

Communicating an assessment which recognises the significance of maturity andencourages sentencers to take this into account in a way which is both constructive aswell as realistic. To ensure this happens, the PSR-writer should...

Consider the language being used. It may be better to avoid unhelpful use of jargon like‘temperance’ so that both the court and the young adult can understand the report.

Be clear if there is the rationale for proposing supervision (sometimes as an alternative toa short custodial sentence) by pointing out that the supervisory relationship canpotentially offer a role model/attachment figure.

Think about how many hours (eg of Unpaid Work) in a community sentence might beappropriate for individual young adults, the type of activity required and howrequirements are explained.

Highlight the potential impact of custody with reference to the specific social contextfaced by the young adult. Research suggests that a custodial sentence can delay ordamage the developmental process and embed immature patterns of behaviour. Incustody, opportunities to develop capacities to exercise control, solve problems and tomake independent choices and decisions can be more limited than in the community.

Avoid proposals that have too many requirements and make sure the right balance isproposed. Although the court will want to ensure that the sentence is sufficientlydemanding, they will be assisted by a professional assessment which explains how theindividual’s level of maturity affects their ability to comply and benefit from therequirements that may be considered. It is important to address the elements that actuallyfit with your assessment of their behaviour in context. In some cases, for example,arguments could be made for cognitive-behavioural programmes which can addressaspects of planning and impulse control.

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Looking ahead to sentence planningYoung adults are more likely than other age groups to breach community sentences. Below are somesteps you can take, during sentence-planning and in the very early stages of supervision, to engage theindividual and encourage constructive compliance.

Sentence plans for young adults should build on the strengths of this age group, pay attention toencouraging compliance, take account of and be relevant to the social context and recognise thesignificance of worker influence to effective outcomes. The aim should be to support the maturationprocess and development of a pro-social identity, paying particular attention to addressing psycho-socialmaturity. Such considerations are appropriate whether practitioners are supervising young adults in thecommunity or working with them in custody.

Build on young adults’ strengths by....

Harnessing the energy and potential enthusiasm among this age group;

Designing interventions that pay as much attention the individual’s wider real lifeexperiences as to their presenting problems;

Making the most of the greater potential for change amongst those whose thinking andlifestyle is less embedded;

Working with individuals to set relevant achievable goals which provide opportunities forpraise, developing and sustaining optimism; and

Recognising that developing brains are moulded by experience and helping this age groupaccess and make the most of pro-social contexts.

Encourage compliance by...

Setting clear but realistic boundaries and more support to help individuals work withinthem, recognising that those individuals at the younger end of this age group may haveless capacity for planning and their lifestyles are more likely to be ‘chaotic’;

Making sentences modular, with short-term intermediate outcomes and milestones thatare more quickly reached by young adults, which may suit some who show short-termthinking;

Providing clear and simple instructions and not overloading with too much detail and toomany instructions at one time;

Being aware of the young adult’s specific needs or learning styles that may hinder theirresponse to generic, adult, individual or group interventions; and

Being flexible and creative in one-to-one sessions with individuals, adjusting the approachand materials to keep an individual actively engaged in the process.



Develop conditions to support desistance by...

Employing multi-disciplinary approaches, being specific about what appropriate servicesare available, taking account of ease of access and relevance to this age group. It isimportant to recognise the specific needs of young adults in terms of establishing stabilityin their accommodation, employment and family relationships;

Making links with local colleges and finding out about local employment opportunities toinform realistic discussions with young adults that explore their aspirations and begin tohelp them make decisions about their future;

Developing the individual's skills and confidence to make use of local services andresources; and

Incorporating a family dimension, recognising that this age group may have a differentrelationship with their family of origin than older offenders who have formed their ownfamily groups, many of whom may be parents themselves.

Maximise the practitioner’s influence by...

Demonstrating professional and personal commitment to the individual;

Being alert to positive behaviour and change which are opportunities to reinforce theirdeveloping pro-social identity;

Collaborating with them when establishing clear boundaries and to identify mutualexpectations;

Being forward-looking in the design and delivery of interventions;

Being patient and willing to adopt a range of methods to actively engage the individual.Such methods could include existing programmes and services but only if they are likely tosupport the development of relevant aspects of maturity; and

Developing the consistent application of skills associated within increasing maturity,including emotional management, planning and control of impulses, and helping toensure that immature patterns of behaviour do not become embedded.

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ReferencesPrior, D. Farrow, K. Hughes, N. Kelly, G. Manders, G. White, S. and Wilkinson, B. (2011) Maturity,young adults and criminal justice: A literature review, Birmingham: University of Birmingham.

T2A (2009) A New Start: Young Adults in the Criminal Justice System, London: T2A Alliance.

T2A (2012) Pathways from Crime: 10 steps to a more effective approach for young adultsthroughout the criminal justice process, London: T2A Alliance.

Youth Justice Board (2012) Youth to Adult Transitions framework, London: YJB/NOMS/MOJ

Contact details:This guide is available on the T2A website www.t2a.org.uk and is free to download and print.For more information about the guide, please contact Max Rutherford, Criminal JusticeProgramme Manager at the Barrow Cadbury Trust, at [email protected]

To find out more about maturity in a criminal justice context, read the literature review byUniversity of Birmingham, available to download at www.t2a.org.uk/publications

17Taking Account of Maturity

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is convened and funded by:

www.barrowcadbury.org.ukRegistered Charity Number: 1115476

www.t2a.org.uk [email protected]

Documents

Taking Account of Maturity - Disability Justice Project · research and theory. The current knowledge base in this area supports the inclusion of an understanding of maturity within