French Juvenile Justice Social Workers’ Perceptions of Youth Offenders

Staff’s representations of offenders are known to impact their interactions with the offenders they work with, but settings involving justice-involved youth remain understudied. This study addressed this research gap by using reflexive thematic analysis to explore French juvenile justice social workers’ representations of justice-involved youth. Semi-structured interviews with 24 participants revealed a diversity of representations. Most participants saw youth offenders’ adverse childhood experiences as mitigating factors in the acts committed and as justification for adopting a welfare-based approach to juvenile justice. We discuss the consequences of the lack of a shared rehabilitation model to guide youth justice interventions.