Merging Action Research and Practice Wisdom to Examine Effective Youth Justice Relationships in Ireland

• In Event: Studying the criminal justice system through qualitative methodologies

Abstract

This paper presents work undertaken in Ireland to ground effective relationship building through practice reflection and action research. Building relationships with young people for crime diversion purposes accounts for a substantial proportion of youth justice practitioners time in Ireland. However, little is known about what constitutes effective relationship building. As a result, policy makers and practitioners have not been able to fully understand the extent to which relationships can help divert young people from crime (O’ Meara Daly et al., 2025). Merging Action Research and qualitative methods to gain the ‘practice wisdom’ of those operating on the ground in youth justice projects, researchers and practitioners have combined to develop new evidence informed guidance. The project was undertaken in collaboration with 60 youth justice practitioners from 16 Youth Diversion Project (YDP) case study sites across Ireland. The ‘practice wisdom’ was key to understanding how to build effective relationships that can divert young people from crime. Three foundational concepts were described by practitioners as central to the efforts of building effective relationships. These concepts are represented as base and core layers; 1. Creating a safe culture, 2. Building trust, giving time, and support, 3.Being young person centred. Practitioners also identified seven characteristics they associated with effective relationship building. The resulting ‘Relationship Model’ provides a visual depiction of the approaches that practitioners described, referred to by many of those involved in the research as ‘the relationship journey’. The model and accompanying guidance is now being disseminated and implemented on a national scale with over 400 staff working in communities with young offenders.

Authors

• Dr Eóin O'Meara Daly, University of Limerick

• Caitlin Lewis, Universityof Limerick