Complex support needs in young people with cognitive disability in contact with the criminal justice system

Objectives: There is significant and growing concern that some young people, including those with cognitive and mental health disorders are becoming socially excluded and criminalized, resulting in their lifelong involvement... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives:
There is significant and growing concern that some young people, including those with cognitive and mental health disorders are becoming socially excluded and criminalized, resulting in their lifelong involvement in the criminal justice system. An emerging body of evidence suggests that as young people (and later as adults) this group figure significantly in policing, justice and correctional settings, both as victims and offenders. It appears that for a significant proportion of these individuals, their support needs are complex, their trajectory into the criminal justice system begins very early in life and is characterised by risk of harm and removal from their families in childhood and early contact with the youth justice system. The specificity of experiences for this vulnerable group with complex support needs is currently poorly understood. This paper presents a study investigating the early lives of this group in one Australian jurisdiction.

Method
The study reported utilises a linked adminsitrative dataset to trace the trajectories of a cohort of 2731 individuals who have complex support needs and who have been in prison as adults in NSW Australia. Using quantitative analyses and case studies dervied from the dataset, the paper interrogates the early life experiences of this group to identify points of potential prevention and optimal support approaches.

Results
Findings from the study indicate that vulnerabilities emerging early in life for this group may include dual or multiple impairments, histories of victimization, early and persistent social disadvantage, placement in out of home care, early educational disengagement, precarious housing and substance misuse.

Conclusions
The human service system has limited capacity to recognise and respond to these complex needs, with the result that management of needs is defrayed to the criminal justice system as the key system of response. The concept of complex needs is developed to capture the sense of multiple interlocking experiences and factors that span early life vulnerability, disability, health and mental health, behavioural and social issues and to suggest conceptual advances to address more effective prevention and intervention.