Mixed-Methods Research with Young People Who Are Vulnerable and ‘Difficult to Reach’: The Emotional Intelligence of Young People Who Have Offended

Many interventions with young offenders require the young people to have a higher appreciation of their own (and others') emotions than they appeared able to demonstrate. Since this might not only be severely reducing the effectiveness of the work, and difficulties with emotions might actually be a criminogenic need (a risk factor for offending) for these young people, not currently being addressed. To identify whether emotional intelligence could be viewed as a risk or a protective factor for offending, a mixed-methods approach was used, involving questionnaires (quantitative) and semi-structured interviews (qualitative).