Prevalence of adverse childhood experiences

When compared to young people in general, those entering the justice system are much more likely to have experienced childhood adversity. As outlined in Chapter 2, studies in both the USA (Duke et al 2010; Dierkhising et al 2013; Baglivio et al 2014; Fox et al 2015) and the UK (Boswell 1996; Jacobson et al 2010; Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation 2017; Martin et al 2021) have consistently shown that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are disproportionally prevalent among young people involved in the justice system. For example, Martin et al (2021) found that young people entering the secure estate were twice as likely as young people in the general population to have experienced one or more ACEs, and over 13 times more likely to have experienced four or more. With this in mind, it was unsurprising that all of the youth justice workers interviewed for this research noted the high prevalence of ACEs among the young people they work with. They noted how rare it was for the assessment tool (see Figure 3.1) to show only one or two of the ten ACEs, with most young people assessed having many more:

The interview findings were supported by the data collected using the ACEs assessment tool. As can be seen in Figure 5.1, over three quarters (78 per cent, n= 155) of the young people who were assessed had an ACE score of four or more. Indeed, over a fifth (22 per cent, n= 43) had a score of eight or more, and three young people had all ten ACEs. Only two of the young people assessed had no recorded ACEs. The average ACE score for the sample was 5.38, with a standard deviation of 2.41.