The second phase explores how LYOT practitioners understand the young people they work with. It explores their knowledge of youth offending and how they use that knowledge to tailor responses to reduce offending.
4.4.1 Aim
The main aim of the interviews with LYOT practitioners was to explore their opinions on why some of their clients reoffend more than others. This phase of research aimed to specifically answer the following question:
What factors do YOT practitioners consider to be associated with reoffending?
4.4.2 Design
Interviews were semi-structured and covered four main areas: YOT processes, reoffending, desistance and the type of young person practitioners work with (Appendix 5). Questions were developed from the PhD aims and the research questions to explore why practitioners thought young people reoffend. This aimed to explore what LYOT practitioners understand about reoffending and built on the findings from the first phase, which found that contact with the system was related to further offending. Questions therefore focused on practitioners’ perceptions on why young people reoffend, as well as exploring their opinion on the reoffending measure (Section 2.4.1). The questions then covered what practitioners’ thought was related to reoffending, to help provide an in-depth perspective of the key factors that play a role. The literature review (Chapter Three) highlighted a number of factors which play a role in reoffending, and interviews with the practitioners explored these. Practitioners were also asked about what they thought would encourage desistance from crime, to help demonstrate a link between what contributes towards reoffending and how offending can be reduced. Due to the previous literature exploring the
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type of offences young people commit, questions about changes in offence type were included. There has been limited research on what types of offences young people commit and if they change their offending type as they reoffend. Practitioners were also asked whether they thought young people were more challenging to work with now compared to recent years. Example questions included “why do you think some young people reoffend?” and “would you say
that the type of offenders you work with has changed from previous years?”.
4.4.3 Participants
All practitioners who worked within LYOT were invited to take part in the research but due to operational reasons, only seventeen practitioners were able to contribute to the study. Practitioners interviewed worked across a range of disciplines including police, probation, social work, mental health, education, physical health, safeguarding, addiction and YOT staff (Table 9). A practice manager and team manager also took part in the interviews.
Table 9. Job Roles of Practitioners.
Role N
Management 2 (11.76%)
Probation Worker 2 (11.76%)
Police 1 (5.88%)
Mental Health Worker 2 (11.76%)
Education Worker 1 (5.88%)
Physical Health 1 (5.88%)
YOT Worker 1 (5.88%)
Social Worker 7 (41.18%)
The study utilised an opportunistic sampling technique with recruitment emails sent to all team managers, who then passed the information onto their team members. Team members then got in touch with the researcher to arrange a suitable date and time for the interviews to take place. Aside from the two managers, all participants worked closely with young people.
4.4.4 Procedure
Interviews took place in Lancashire County Council premises across the county, at locations in Preston, Burnley and Lancaster. Practitioners were asked to sign a consent form (Appendix 6), which reminded them about their right to withdraw
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and about the anonymity of their answers. Participants were also given an information sheet, which explained what the research was about (Appendix 7). With the participants’ permission, the interviews were audio recorded. Interviews lasted between ten minutes and one hour. On completion of the interview, a debrief form was given out reminding participants that they could withdraw using the details provided. The same researcher carried out all seventeen interviews.
4.4.5 Equipment and Materials
All interviews were audio recorded using a digital Dictaphone and transcribed at a later date. Interviews were transcribed using NVivo and only spoken words were recorded. No overlaps or pauses were recorded. An interview script was used for the interviews which ensured that all topics were covered (Appendix 5). This covered questions on the practitioners’ experience of working with young people who offend as well as more general questions on what they thought was related to reoffending.
4.4.6 Ethical Considerations
Ethical approval was granted by the UCLan ethics board (Appendix 8. Participants received a copy of the information sheet before they took part in the interviews as well as a copy of the consent form. The consent form detailed out the procedure for the research and the withdrawal process. The information sheet provided a more detailed explanation about the aims of the research and why the practitioners were asked to take part. This included information about their right to withdraw and the procedure. The LYOT management team also approved the research (Appendix 9).
4.4.7 Inter-Rater Reliability
To ensure consistency and that the interviews were objectively coded, a member of the UCLan policing team conducted the inter-rater reliability coding on 23% of the interviews. Inter-rater reliability is the process by which transcripts are analysed by a second individual to establish if similar themes are identified. This involved the following process;
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1. Lead researcher analysed interviews and identified themes
2. A second rater then reviewed a sample of interviews (23.5%) along with the list of themes from the lead researcher’s analysis.
3. The lead researcher and second rater then discussed the coding
The second rater did not create any new variables during their coding. Out of a possible 68 ratings, there was agreement in 85% of the cases. This was calculated using the 17 sub-themes across four interviews. The high similarity between the second coder and the researcher ensured that the themes were consistent and therefore no actions were taken as a result of the inter-rater process.