A new report published yesterday is advocating a distinct approach to the way that young adults are treated at court.


The model proposed by the Centre for Justice Innovation and the Transition to Adulthood Alliance is based on “procedural fairness”.  Reconfiguring court practice to account for the maturity of young adults and to ensure that they fully understand the court process and their sentence. Research evidence suggests this is likely to improve compliance and reduce reoffending.

Acknowledged in the report, the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) at Manchester Metropolitan University has worked with the report’s authors to develop an evaluation methodology to measure whether the proposed model delivers changes in:

• Perceptions of fairness of the court;

• Practitioner perceptions of the projects;

• Victim satisfaction;

• Intermediate outcomes such as physical and mental health, housing, education and employment;

• Frequency and severity of reoffending

For more information about PERU’s work on young adults see PERU’s T2A Evaluation Project.

The final process evaluation report by PERU on the Transition to Young Adults T2A Pathway Programme can be found here.

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Kevin Wong

Associate Director – Criminal Justice