The Youth Justice Board’s (YJB) statutory functions include a duty to “identify, to make known and to promote good practice”. This is a key element of the YJB’s Centre of Excellence approach, providing the youth justice sector with a trusted and authoritative source of knowledge and guidance.

As part of this approach they are constantly trying to identify and disseminate ongoing research and practice. This work is invaluable to help practitioners keep up to date with new and innovative approaches and topics, and also let them know what work is going on in their area. Among this work is the research being undertaken by Universities and research centres across the UK.

It was the YJB’s aim to try to capture as much of this ongoing research as possible when they set up the Youth Justice Research Map as part of the Youth Justice Resource Hub. They want to develop a central database of ongoing research in the youth justice field in the UK, which will be published, updated and made available to everyone. The Map creates a space specifically to disseminate ongoing research, enabling local practitioners to engage directly with researchers working in their region or on topics of interest to them.

By publicising the map to academics and researchers, the YJB are hoping to gather as many examples of ongoing work, in the field of youth crime (including both offending by and against children and young people) and youth justice, as possible.

Your contributions would be really welcome. If you have an example of ongoing work that you would like to publicise, you can complete a form on the main page of the Map which can be submitted immediately through the website. It should only take about 15 minutes to complete, and once you submit it, the YJB can upload the details and it can be live very quickly. They can also send you a WORD version of the form if you email resourcehub@yjb.gsi.gov.uk if you would prefer.

Once studies are completed (based on the deadline you provide), the YJB will write to you to ask if you have any findings from your study. They can then share these directly on the Hub, on the Research Community part of the site.

With your help this could be made an invaluable resource for youth justice professionals.

If you or your colleagues have any questions, please contact Mark Mason, at the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales at mark.mason@yjb.gsi.gov.uk or 0203 334 0999.