Page 71 - Preventing Youth Violence

An increasingly popular school of thought in criminology is the application of a strengths-

based approach to working with youth offenders. One such model is The Good Lives
Model(GLM),which has been traditionally used in the treatment of adults, particularly

sex offenders, but has been recently applied in the rehabilitation of youths. This model
is a rehabilitation framework that focuses on goal setting. It empowers clients to identify

and formulate ways of achieving personally meaningful goals in pro-social ways (Fortune,
2018). “It is argued that as a rehabilitation framework the GLM has the flexibility and

breadth to accommodate the variety of risk factors and complex needs youth offenders
present with, and also provides a natural fit with a dynamic systems (e.g., family and

educational systems) framework, and evidence based interventions in the youth offender
field” (Fortune, 2018, abstract).

The CSJP III did not use the classical GLM model. It engaged the underlying principles of the

framework that are applicable to the CSJP III Case Management approach. The inclusion
of the Protective Factors domain in the CSJP III Case Management approach and its

utilisation through the case management process reflect the use of the GLM framework.
However, this is an area in case management that could arguably be strengthened, as

greater focus on improving and developing protective factors could have yielded more
positive results.

The data highlighted that 33.5 per cent of the sample was able to maintain a medium

level for protective factors. The percentage that showed improvement for this domain
was 30.5 per cent. This indicates that at reassessment 64.0 per cent of the sample was

either medium or high in the protective factors domain.

These results are encouraging; given the CSJP III’s thrust to underpin its case management
with a strengths-based focus. It was noted from the data that youths were more likely to

maintain their protective factors at a high or medium level. A possible explanation for this
is that the protective factors which existed in the lives of the youths would be strengthened

via the case management approach inclusive of appropriate monitoring by the CCMOs
and consistent school engagement through the CSJP.

Adults were more likely to show a decrease in protective factors from high to low. This

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