The role of Mesology and Respair in Case Management.

• In Event: Authentic Voices: Young people and Violence. Being heard as well as being seen.

Abstract

This paper draws on research from two projects conducted in the North East of England, and considers the case management approach offered to young people involved in serious youth violence (SYV). Both projects, while aspiring to encourage desistance, recognised that given the complexity of the young people’s lives, this was unlikely. Desistance was seen to be particularly difficult for those young people who had being exploited into criminal activities, experienced grooming or where they had limited agency to safely exit such activities. Desistance was seen to be particularly difficult for those young people who were being exploited into criminal activities, experiencing grooming or where they had limited agency to safely exit such activities. Social media was seen to play a significant role in young people's involvement in crime, and most notably in more serious crime, while also making them vulnerable to exploitation and harm, yet rarely fully understood by professionals supporting them. The paper begins to unpack some of the key features of the case management approaches adopted by the projects for these young people where coercion, control, and violence were dominant features. We ask whether respair, used to refer to a sense of fresh hope and recovery from despair and mesology that is how social institutions and organisations could help people achieve happiness and are more appropriate aspirations to underpin case management.

Author

• Sarah Soppitt, Northumbria University