Police in Partnership With Civilian Youth Development Officers (From Reducing Criminality--Partnerships and Best Practices, P 1-9, 2000, Adam Graycar, ed. -- See NCJ-186333)

• NCJ Number: 186354
• Author(s): Ann L. Parker; Philip B. Mohr
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This paper discusses police and youth development officers working together in dealing with young offenders.

Abstract

The role of police in dealing with young offenders (i.e., those 10- to 18-years-old) in South Australia is increasingly one that extends beyond arrest and prosecution. One approach to meeting the demands of proactive policing is to assign some responsibilities to non-police with skills in the areas to be addressed. This study examined the opinions of 201 operational police officers on deploying civilian Youth Development Officers (YDOs) in a metropolitan police station. Two YDOs were employed in 1997 to liaise with police, youths, and appropriate support services with the primary aim of diverting at-risk youths from the juvenile justice system. The high level of acceptance and approval by police, both in principle and in practice, endorses deployment of civilian specialist staff as an option in policing with young offenders. Officers with experience of the YDOs were both more strongly supportive of the program and more strongly of the view, already widely held among police, that the work done by such staff is not work that should be done by police. Tables, references