Unpacking Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Qualitative Research with Justice Involved Youth

As articulated in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children and young people have the right to express their views freely in all matters that affect them. According to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, adhering to this right means that all youth, and particularly those who are justice involved, should be directly involved in research and evaluation of the justice system (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2019). However, despite the importance of including the voices of justice involved youth in research, ethical and methodological challenges remain. With these sentiments in mind, this paper will discuss two parts of a research study that examines the experiences of neurodiverse youth in the Canadian youth justice system. While the perspectives of justice-involved youth are often overlooked, this gap is particularly evident for youth who identify as neurodiverse.

First, consistent with a participatory youth centered framework, and recognizing the participation rights of justice-involved youth, this presentation will outline the development and execution of a youth advisory committee consisting of 14 neurodiverse youth in Ontario, Canada. Feedback generated through the advisory group informed our project design and data collection. Next, this paper will discuss the second phase of our project which involves qualitative interviews with 62 neurodiverse justice-involved youth.

In addition to sharing best practices for improving the justice system, this presentation will discuss how methodological and ethical challenges can be negotiated in order to promote a rights-respecting approach to youth justice.