Disabling and criminalising systems? Understanding the experiences and challenges facing incarcerated, neurodivergent children in the education and youth justice systems in England

Abstract

Children defined as ‘neurodivergent’ are over-represented in the English and Welsh criminal justice system, and face a number of challenges as they navigate their way through the education and youth justice systems. This paper will empirically examine this neglected area of criminal justice involvement in young lives, and involves an interpretivist investigation of neurodivergent children's experiences of the education and youth justice systems, involving semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 19 children in England who were either in custody or had recently been released from custody. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis.

The research findings suggest that both the education and youth justice systems in England and Wales are disabling and criminalising through processes that, often unintentionally; label, stigmatise, isolate, neglect and harm neurodivergent children. Consideration will turn, in the concluding section of the paper, to what a ‘child first’ education and youth justice system would look like for neurodivergent children.