Child First Participatory Research: The Challenges of Involving Children in Youth Justice Decision-making

Collaboration is a key aspect of 'Child First' justice, but what is meaningful 'collaboration' within a Child First-focused youth justice system and where are the difficulties with making this reality? Importantly, although practice is beginning to embrace the importance of involving children at a decision-making level, youth justice-focused research remains behind this curve. Within the adult-centric realities of both practice and research, power imbalances abound, meaning that even if opportunities are offered for collaboration, it still may not happen if the required conditions are not in evidence. Utilising Thomas's (2002) 'climbing wall' picture of participation (a pre-cursor to full collaboration), this article explores how children can be facilitated to collaborate within youth justice practice and research, also considering where difficulties with realising this in practice might lie. The issues identified are illustrated through a research project (Child First: Realising Effective Participation) which explores with justice-involved children their collaboration understanding and experiences, but also maintaining a child-centric position throughout by adopting an innovative method to involve children as co-researchers. The experiences of this project identified issues with adult gatekeepers, the challenges of sharing power, and how well children are facilitated (given the autonomy and choice, control over decisions, necessary information, support, valued for their voice) to truly collaborate in youth justice-focused research.