New Generation: Evidence Briefing
This briefing brings together the latest evidence on young adults in the ‘revolving door’ of crisis and crime. Its aim is to consider what can be done to prevent these young adults from getting caught there.
On the whole, the criminal justice system fails to recognise the combined impact of trauma and poverty on the lives of young adults. As a result, many of them enter the ‘revolving door’. Numerous services withdraw support when young people are transitioning from children’s to adult services and the police are left to pick up the pieces.
Our evidence suggests that a significant number of young adults are on the cusp of entering the ‘revolving door’. If we don’t intervene, we run the risk of people cycling through the system for a decade or more. Young adulthood is the point where we need to intervene more effectively.
There is also a great deal of evidence to show that each contact with the criminal justice system harms future life chances. The deeper into the criminal justice system young adults move, the more likely they are to reoffend. Proactively diverting young adults away from the criminal justice system and into appropriate support services must be a priority for the whole system.
