Empowering young people: multi-disciplinary expressive interventions utilising Diamond9 evaluative methods to encourage agency in youth justice

Recent research on arts and sports in the (adult) criminal justice system suggest arts and sports projects can have a positive impact on offenders. Arts programmes have been shown to help increase offender’s self-esteem, communication skills and self-worth (Allen et al. 2004, Miles & Clarke 2006, Parker et al. 2014, Wilson et al. 2009, Wilson & Caulfield 2009). Arts- and sports-based programmes have commonly been employed to improve prisoners’ overall learning capacity and motivation, enhance self-efficacy, help offenders explore and develop prosocial identities and positive relationships with others and act as a ‘catalyst’ for positive psychological and attitudinal changes and therefore contribute, directly and indirectly, to desistance from further offending. The research presented herein utilises a mixed method approach to evaluating sports and arts-based interventions within a Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs) in England and Wales, adopting the Diamond9 model and semi-structured interviews, considered further below. This is the first time the model has been adopted within a Secure Children’s Home; an under-researched area of the criminal justice system. Accordingly, the results provide an original insight into the voice of this currently underrepresented demographic of the Secure Estate. The Secure Estate incorporates: SCHs, Secure Training Centres (STC), and Young Offender Institutions (YOI).