Youth justice pathways to change: Drivers, challenges and opportunities

How and why does youth justice change? This article examines the nature and foci of change in youth justice by analysing this change as situated within processes that occur along pathways, rather than as triggered by measurable causes acting in linear ways. Our analytical framework is constituted by a series of identified potential pathways to change that are distinct, yet mutually reciprocal: political, paradigmatic, research-led and cognisant. The intention is to test key assumptions and to open up debate about the nature of youth justice change and how it can be constructed, understood and influenced.