Kicking crime into ouch: Rugby Union as a context for positive youth development with young people involved in the youth justice system

Jump, Deborah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5525-6693, Crowther, Jamie and Smithson, Hannah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4096-0172 (2022) Kicking crime into ouch: Rugby Union as a context for positive youth development with young people involved in the youth justice system. In: Power Played: a critical criminology of sport. Law and Society . UBC Press, pp. 346-365. ISBN 9780774867795 (hardback); 9780774867818 (ebook); 9780774867825 (ebook)

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Abstract

Kicking Crime into Touch (KCIT) was a two-year youth justice intervention based in the northwest of England. It encouraged justice-involved young men to try out for Rugby Union, with an overall objective of increasing their physical fitness and emotional well-being, as well as encouraging more positive peer networks. Employing the lens of positive youth development (PYD), this essay discusses its impact in conjunction with rugby and young people in the criminal justice system. We expected that KCIT would increase their participation in Rugby Union and that the youth justice services in the region would take advantage of this development. In this chapter, we focus on our successes and our failures, which were grounded in structural restraints that the young men simply could not overcome.