Having engaged in acts of vandalism and assault, Sue - a young teenager - was referred to Sacro's Youth Justice service and was able to reflect on, and repair the harm caused by her actions.
Sue is a young teen age female who was referred to Sacro’s Youth Justice Service from the Youth Offender Management Group (YOMG) for an offence of Assault to Injury.
She picked up a further charge in the month following referral for an offence of Vandalism. Sue was struggling to manage her anger at the time and would act out without thinking it through.
With this offence referred back into the service, we completed a Youth Star assessment with Sue, and the following areas of support were identified:
Victim Awareness: We completed a ‘ripple effect’ analysis on Sue’s assault charge. She was able to reflect on the impact of her actions on herself and others, and was able to identify 15 individuals who were affected negatively by the incident.
Consequential Thinking: We completed two timelines of events for both of her charges. Sue was able to explain what happened from start to finish for each incident and reflect on how she was feeling throughout the timelines. On reflection, Sue was able to identify what she would do differently in hindsight.
Anger Management: We explored Sue’s anger, how it manifests and how she displays that anger both physically and emotionally. From this, we were able to identify her triggers and the coping strategies she has used, as well as those she can use in the future. Sue acknowledged there had been a decrease in her anger and now felt she was getting more frustrated than angry.
Assault: To work on assault awareness, we completed a questionnaire that focused on Sue’s perceptions of aggression and violence in relation to assault. We then looked at the words she thinks of when she hears the word ‘assault’. We explored the ways in which an individual can be impacted by assault, and had Sue identify the different physical, psychological and social impacts.
One Punch: This approach looks at the dangers and impacts of assault as well as looking at real life examples. We examined a scenario where Sue was able to identify those who had been affected by completing a ‘ripple’, and discussed real life examples of people who lost their lives due to assault.
Restorative Justice: When offered restorative justice, Sue agreed to take part. For the assault charge, she did not want to directly apologise to the Person Harmed and instead agreed to write a letter of apology to her year head, apologising for her behaviour in school and for engaging in an assault. Social Work handed the letter in to Sue’s school on her behalf. For the vandalism charge, she agreed to write a letter of apology to the bus company for damaging their bus seats. Again, Social Work delivered the letter on her behalf.
Sue demonstrated full engagement in the sessions throughout and completed the intervention with positive outcomes. She was able to reflect on her actions and the impact they have had on herself and others and has not come to the attention of the service since the case was completed and closed.
Both Sue and her mother expressed thanks to the worker for the intervention.