Challenges in capturing the authentic voice of the ‘unchildlike child’

Understandings of the concept of ‘childhood’—a period of life framed in contrast with ‘adulthood’ as a time of innocence, immaturity and dependency—has implications for the ways in which children and young people’s needs, experiences, and identities are framed. Those young people whose experiences and behaviours breach the boundaries between childhood and adulthood are often constructed in what Aitken (2001) refers to as the ‘unchildlike child’. Drawing upon our research on Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) and serious youth violence (SYV), in this chapter we consider the implications of the paradoxical view of criminalised children as both a ‘child’ and ‘offender’ for participatory approaches in youth justice. While the shift towards ‘Child First’ is welcomed in emphasising young people as ‘children first’, we demonstrate how young people engaged in CCE and SYV have often experienced and endured things in their lives that most adults will never experience. To view them simply as ‘a child’, we argue, is in danger of misunderstanding them and the environments they live and operate within and through which their ‘childhood’ is constructed. Indeed, while the transition from childhood to adulthood is challenging for many young people, for those entrenched in a world of criminality and offending behaviours, this is often exacerbated in the move from youth to adult justice services. In this chapter we outline the importance of understanding the wider socio-historical, cultural, and local contexts in which violence arises and exists; the complexities of capturing the ‘authentic voice’ of these ‘unchildlike’ children to inform co-production approaches to youth justice; and consider implications for the adoption of ‘Child First’ rhetoric in policy and practice.