ABSTRACT

The following chapter draws on the authors’ experience of working with young people (children and adolescents) with offending histories within community youth offending teams, secure children’s homes and a young offenders institution (YOI). While the chapter focuses particularly on the adolescent population in prison, it is the authors’ view that the developmental perspectives and systemic approaches described within the chapter have meaning and value for understanding clients’ behaviour and our approaches to it within the wider mental health and criminal justice systems.