Holly Judge, Research Analyst at the National Autistic Society, discusses a Youth Justice research project including its planning, development, and outcomes.

For over a decade the National Autistic Society has being working with criminal justice organisations to improve outcomes for autistic people who offend.  For example:

• Delivering government funded training and reflective practice sessions to criminal justice professionals 
• Developing Autism Accreditation standards for probation and prison services 
• Working closely with the Ministry of Justice Policy Team on a number of pieces of work to improve outcomes for autistic people in the Criminal Justice System (CJS)  

As awareness of autism has increased within the CJS, there have been growing concerns about the numbers of young autistic people entering the system.  Inspired by our work and the distinct dearth of research in this area (other than small scale studies), the overarching aim of our proposed project was to understand the experiences and trajectories of autistic people aged 25 and under within the youth justice system.  Research questions we wanted to address included: 

• What are early concerns and experiences when entering the system?
• What are the specific challenges once in the system?
• What are the key gaps in knowledge and support - within the system and when transitioning out into the community?  

Navigating the challenges of conducting fieldwork in Young Offenders Institutions (YOIs) and prisons

The original research design was to focus on the experiences of autistic offenders (aged 25 and under) nearing the end of their sentence and transitioning out of Young Offenders Institutions (YOIs) and prisons. Links had already been established with two UK prisons, who had a means of identifying autistic participants (i.e. through a diagnostic team within their mental health unit or screening tools). In order to build a clear picture about prisoners’ experiences we required:

• Qualitative data - an analytic approach called Grounded Theory to be applied to participant interviews.  
• Quantitative data - mental wellbeing questionnaires to be collected and analysed, and prevalence rates of autism at the YOIs estimated. 

Ethical approval has to be granted through the research committee at HMPPS (His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service) in order to successfully conduct fieldwork.  When revising our application with the support of our academic partners from the Tizard Centre, University of Kent, we had to address the following challenges:

• Recruiting the target number sample size for valid and reliable analysis (a minimum of 20 offenders, 10 family members and 10 staff).
• Identifying participants who meet the inclusion criteria i.e. aged over 18 with an autism diagnosis or ‘actively seeking a diagnosis’.
• Assessing capacity and obtaining informed consent.   
• Monitoring participant safety and wellbeing. 
• Researcher safety during YOI/prison visits.
• Being granted use of a digital encrypted recorder in YOIs/prisons for transcription.
• Obtaining permission to recruit and interview family members.
• Being time efficient when arranging and conducting fieldwork whilst minimising burden on staff. 

We found ourselves in the position where we were not able to finalise recruitment processes with key liaisons until ethical approval was obtained.  Therefore, the only way to proceed was to provide as much detail as possible using successful applications as a template to then obtain a ‘decision in principle’.   

Redesigning the project to conduct fieldwork from home during the COVID-19 pandemic

At the point of submitting our ethic approval application to HMPPS, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared and all YOIs/prisons were in lockdown.  After several months a decision was made to redesign the project to encompass experiences of autistic people who had varying levels of involvement with the youth justice system, from police to YOI/prison.  With autistic people and family members recounting experiences, (which happened when aged 25 and under), this allowed us to conduct all fieldwork from home. 

Our process was as follows:

• Data was collected through two phases: online survey and semi-structured interviews through telephone, videoconferencing and webchat.
• Non-standardised measures were developed for the survey (due to the research being inductive), with some influence from National Autistic Society helpline themes and previous work from Prison Reform Trust.
• In addition to autistic people and family members, perspectives from criminal justice professionals and those working with young autistic people were also captured.  
• Statistical analysis was applied to quantitative data in the survey and thematic coding for qualitative data in the interviews.   
• Our academic partners, and an advisory group of professionals with a personal connection to autism, provided feedback on the design and data collection phase of the project.
• Ethical approval was obtained through our academic partners’ ethics committee.
• Findings were used to reaffirm policy recommendations in our Youth Justice report (see ‘further reading’). 

Learning points from undertaking the redesigned project 

On reflection our redesigned project allowed us to capture a more diverse and holistic picture of experiences through all sections of the system (YOI/prisons was a small proportion in our sample).  We were also able to gain an understanding of early concerns and the impact of when systems fail young people i.e. education, statutory services such as CAMHS and the criminal justice system itself. This resulted in rich qualitative data and evidence. 

Compared with the original research design:

• Ethical clearance through a university committee took less time.
• Providing ‘permissions to contact’ on an online survey made it easier to recruit target sample sizes for interviews.  
• Participants had a wider choice of mediums through which to engage. 
• Careful steps were undertaken to ensure safeguarding and participant wellbeing, without additional ‘burdens’ such as ensuring researcher safety and reliance on prison staff.    
• Overall the project was less time consuming with increased sample sizes. 

The results provided ammunition for future policy and campaigns. Please read our full report (reference below) for more information. 

Further reading  

• Youth justice report
• Supporting autistic people in prison and probation services
• Developing autism accreditation for prison services
• Advice and guidance – criminal justice