Bringing Technology to Justice-Involved Youth

TL;DR

This paper explores how technology can improve engagement and outcomes for justice-involved youth through innovative and scalable solutions.

Contribution

The paper presents a collection of contributions from a Lorentz workshop on implementing technology in youth justice.

Findings

Technologies like virtual reality and apps offer scalable and engaging solutions for justice-involved youth.

Empirical studies show efficiency gains through technological support in existing practices.

The collection highlights the need for robust research to ensure ethical and effective technology use.

Abstract

Conventional assessment and treatment approaches targeting justice-involved youth have typically yielded low engagement and modest long-term impact on recidivism and psychosocial functioning. Technologies such as virtual reality, smartphone applications, and wearable devices, offer promising opportunities to address such limitations by providing scalable, engaging and ecologically valid approaches that align well with the often complex needs of this population. The contributions in the special issue aim to showcase some of the potential of these technologies. The special issue originated from a 5-day international Lorentz workshop that brought together researchers and professionals working in clinical practice to explore opportunities, needs, and barriers related to technology implementation in this context. The included contributions comprise empirical case studies illustrating efficiency gains through technological support of existing practices; papers detailing innovative methods that leverage unique capabilities of specific technologies, such as enhanced accessibility and immersive experiences; state-of-the-art reviews; and a viewpoint paper addressing ethical considerations. Collectively, the contributions highlight the promise of technology as well as the need for methodologically robust research to ensure effective and ethical implementation.