Considering youth justice interventions in context for more effective prevention: Realism over reductionism

Reviews of youth justice intervention effectiveness prioritise hierarchies of evidence that obscure how contextual features shape the ‘mechanisms’ of change in preventative interventions. This article critiques this current evidence-based approach to youth justice interventions and its reliance on reoffending reduction as a measure of effectiveness. Community-based prevention programmes have been central to youth justice, since the late 20th century in England and Wales. However, by concentrating primarily on effect sizes, this approach often overlooks the influence specific contexts have on the mechanisms that can facilitate behaviour or attitude change through these preventative interventions. The authors propose that a realist approach could enhance understanding by focusing on how interventions work, for whom, and why. The article begins by outlining key theories that underpin youth justice programmes, followed by an overview of the realist synthesis (RS) approach to evidence review. This approach emphasises the mechanisms behind interventions and the contextual factors influencing their success. The authors apply this perspective to two types of community-based interventions used with two distinct and different groups of children: Intensive Supervision and Surveillance and Restorative Justice Conferencing in Referral Orders. The study makes three contributions. First, it provides an original detailed account of conducting an RS in the youth justice context, demonstrating the value of realist methods in evaluating youth justice interventions. Second, it highlights that youth justice interventions are often underpinned by competing programme theories that, in practice, work both in harmony and tension – producing a more diverse set of outcomes beyond simple proclamations of interventions being effective or not. Third, it emphasises that understanding and refining these underlying theories can improve children's outcomes in youth justice programmes through practical guidance.