JSB239 Youth Crime: Causes and Prevention
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | JSB239 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite(s): | 72cp of completed study |
| Equivalent(s): | JSB372 |
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
|
| CSP student contribution | $2,174 |
| Pre-2021 CSP student contribution | $1,020 The pre-2021 commonwealth supported place (CSP) contribution amount only applies to students enrolled in a course prior to 2021. To learn more, visit our Understanding your fees page. |
| Domestic tuition unit fee | $3,456 |
| International unit fee | $4,932 |
Unit Outline: Semester 2 2026, Kelvin Grove, Internal
| Unit code: | JSB239 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Pre-requisite: | 72cp of completed study |
| Equivalent: | JSB372 |
| Coordinator: | Bridget Weir | bridget.weir@qut.edu.au |
Overview
This unit equips you with specialised knowledge on youth crime, its causes, and prevention, essential for those pursuing careers in youth justice. It bridges broader concepts of policing and criminal justice with specific issues faced by young people in the criminal justice system, emphasising socially just outcomes. Understanding youth crime and crime prevention is crucial for justice professionals as it enables them to address the root causes of youth offending, advocate for fair treatment, and implement effective interventions. The course fosters high-level critical thinking skills, enabling you to analyse youth crime issues from multiple perspectives, and supporting justice for offenders, victims, and communities.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Examine contemporary youth crime issues from diverse stakeholder perspectives.
- Critically reflect on stakeholder positionality and the impact on negotiating problem resolution.
- Propose evidence-based, culturally safe and inclusive solutions to youth crime issues.
- Create risk assessments and case plans to communicate about individual youth at risk with other professionals and stakeholders.
Content
The unit will cover the following:
- Historicising and theorising youth crime
- Sex, gender and youth justice
- Ethnicity, Indigeneity and youth justice
- Class and youth justice
- Preventing youth crime
- Legislating and policing youth deviance
- Sentencing and regulating youth deviance
- Youth conferences, diversion and restorative justice
- Risk assessments and case plans
- Negotiating with stakeholders
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn by engaging in the following:
- lectures - live and pre-recorded
- workshops - face-to-face or online
- readings, media and video resources.
The unit adopts an interactive and problem-based learning approach in which you are encouraged to identify, observe and critique theories of youth crime and crime prevention strategies in everyday social settings. You will also be provided with problem scenarios and cases to analyse, being asked to develop strategies to manage real world youth crime problems in groups and individually.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- a range of formative exercises discussed and undertaken throughout the unit
- reflection on working with peers
- feedback from peers as you investigate and discuss issues raised throughout the unit
- comments about summative assessment work included with your grade
- general summative assessment feedback posted to the whole cohort via the unit Canvas site.
Assessment
Overview
In this unit there are two assessments:
1. Stakeholder Roundtable - This task draws on youth justice principles and concepts to undertake a stakeholder roundtable addressing a contemporary youth justice issue.
2. Risk Assessment and Case Plan - This task brings together core unit concepts to undertake a risk assessment and create a case plan for an individual youth at risk of offending.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Stakeholder Roundtable
You will take on the role of a stakeholder in youth justice to negotiate with other stakeholders and create a set of recommendations to address a contemporary youth justice issue.
Part A: Individually, you will investigate the contemporary issue from the point of view of your stakeholder role and produce a summary proposal.
Part B: You will meet with the other stakeholders to produce a set of recommendations on the issue. Following your meeting, you will record a video reflecting on the issue and the process of negotiation.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is allowed to help you study and find out more about the topic; noting AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias. Any content generated may not be copied and included in your final submission.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Risk Assessment and Case Plan
You will take on the role of a youth justice worker to create a risk assessment and case plan based on a fictional young person involved with the criminal justice system (and/or other relevant source(s)).
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is allowed to help you study and find out more about the topic; noting AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias. Any content generated may not be copied and included in your final submission.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
There are no resources that are required to be purchased for this unit. Resources will be available in the unit's Canvas site.
Risk Assessment Statement
Students are advised that some content in justice units may be confronting. If you are concerned that the content of a unit may impact your completion of the course, please see the unit coordinator. You can also access free student counselling through QUT Counselling via the QUT Student Homepage.
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.JS34 Bachelor of Justice
- Apply social and criminal justice principles to explain justice issues and contexts.
Relates to: ULO1, Stakeholder Roundtable, Risk Assessment and Case Plan - Collect and analyse evidence to inform decisions and recommendations in justice systems.
Relates to: ULO3, Stakeholder Roundtable, Risk Assessment and Case Plan - Apply culturally safe and inclusive approaches to work with diverse communities and people as a Justice professional.
Relates to: ULO3, Stakeholder Roundtable, Risk Assessment and Case Plan - Communicate justice and social issues in respectful, professional and ethical ways with other professionals and stakeholders.
Relates to: ULO4, Risk Assessment and Case Plan - Facilitate discussions and collaborate with stakeholders in the justice sector.
Relates to: ULO2, Stakeholder Roundtable
Unit Outline: Semester 2 2026, Online
| Unit code: | JSB239 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Pre-requisite: | 72cp of completed study |
| Equivalent: | JSB372 |
Overview
This unit equips you with specialised knowledge on youth crime, its causes, and prevention, essential for those pursuing careers in youth justice. It bridges broader concepts of policing and criminal justice with specific issues faced by young people in the criminal justice system, emphasising socially just outcomes. Understanding youth crime and crime prevention is crucial for justice professionals as it enables them to address the root causes of youth offending, advocate for fair treatment, and implement effective interventions. The course fosters high-level critical thinking skills, enabling you to analyse youth crime issues from multiple perspectives, and supporting justice for offenders, victims, and communities.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Examine contemporary youth crime issues from diverse stakeholder perspectives.
- Critically reflect on stakeholder positionality and the impact on negotiating problem resolution.
- Propose evidence-based, culturally safe and inclusive solutions to youth crime issues.
- Create risk assessments and case plans to communicate about individual youth at risk with other professionals and stakeholders.
Content
The unit will cover the following:
- Historicising and theorising youth crime
- Sex, gender and youth justice
- Ethnicity, Indigeneity and youth justice
- Class and youth justice
- Preventing youth crime
- Legislating and policing youth deviance
- Sentencing and regulating youth deviance
- Youth conferences, diversion and restorative justice
- Risk assessments and case plans
- Negotiating with stakeholders
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn by engaging in the following:
- lectures - live and pre-recorded
- workshops - face-to-face or online
- readings, media and video resources.
The unit adopts an interactive and problem-based learning approach in which you are encouraged to identify, observe and critique theories of youth crime and crime prevention strategies in everyday social settings. You will also be provided with problem scenarios and cases to analyse, being asked to develop strategies to manage real world youth crime problems in groups and individually.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- a range of formative exercises discussed and undertaken throughout the unit
- reflection on working with peers
- feedback from peers as you investigate and discuss issues raised throughout the unit
- comments about summative assessment work included with your grade
- general summative assessment feedback posted to the whole cohort via the unit Canvas site.
Assessment
Overview
In this unit there are two assessments:
1. Stakeholder Roundtable - This task draws on youth justice principles and concepts to undertake a stakeholder roundtable addressing a contemporary youth justice issue.
2. Risk Assessment and Case Plan - This task brings together core unit concepts to undertake a risk assessment and create a case plan for an individual youth at risk of offending.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Stakeholder Roundtable
You will take on the role of a stakeholder in youth justice to negotiate with other stakeholders and create a set of recommendations to address a contemporary youth justice issue.
Part A: Individually, you will investigate the contemporary issue from the point of view of your stakeholder role and produce a summary proposal.
Part B: You will meet with the other stakeholders to produce a set of recommendations on the issue. Following your meeting, you will record a video reflecting on the issue and the process of negotiation.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is allowed to help you study and find out more about the topic; noting AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias. Any content generated may not be copied and included in your final submission.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Risk Assessment and Case Plan
You will take on the role of a youth justice worker to create a risk assessment and case plan based on a fictional young person involved with the criminal justice system (and/or other relevant source(s)).
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is allowed to help you study and find out more about the topic; noting AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias. Any content generated may not be copied and included in your final submission.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
There are no resources that are required to be purchased for this unit. Resources will be available in the unit's Canvas site.
Risk Assessment Statement
Students are advised that some content in justice units may be confronting. If you are concerned that the content of a unit may impact your completion of the course, please see the unit coordinator. You can also access free student counselling through QUT Counselling via the QUT Student Homepage.
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.JS34 Bachelor of Justice
- Apply social and criminal justice principles to explain justice issues and contexts.
Relates to: ULO1, Stakeholder Roundtable, Risk Assessment and Case Plan - Collect and analyse evidence to inform decisions and recommendations in justice systems.
Relates to: ULO3, Stakeholder Roundtable, Risk Assessment and Case Plan - Apply culturally safe and inclusive approaches to work with diverse communities and people as a Justice professional.
Relates to: ULO3, Stakeholder Roundtable, Risk Assessment and Case Plan - Communicate justice and social issues in respectful, professional and ethical ways with other professionals and stakeholders.
Relates to: ULO4, Risk Assessment and Case Plan - Facilitate discussions and collaborate with stakeholders in the justice sector.
Relates to: ULO2, Stakeholder Roundtable