This objective of changing thinking patterns along with terms such as "pro-social," "responsibility" and reducing "criminal thinking" are often linked to evidence based practice in criminal justice programming. A common objective for these programs is to change the way offenders think by developing pro-social skills and reducing maladaptive behavior linked to criminal activity. For example, two testimonials from young people who have completed a program designed to reduce shoplifting for youth describe their development of a new perspective: "I learned to respect small and large businesses, they do me a favor by selling things I need so I do respect their property and them. This was a large eye-opener for me. I seemed to take things for granted." "I developed a whole new perspective on choices and learned that one mistake can change your life forever". (PVS organization Annual Report, 2011) 1 The messaging behind these accounts is that young people involved with the PVS learn "new ways of being." The phrases "whole new perspective" and "large eye-opener" connote a personal transformative experience and a departure from a former way of thinking and being. Temporally, these testimonials are a telling of the end of a narrative, what the young person's perspective is like after youth justice programming offered by the voluntary sector. If we are to imagine what came before these narratives, we might assume crime such as stealing, and criminal attitudes.
This article draws on original empirical research in Ontario, Canada which analyses penal voluntary sector practice with youth in conflict with the law. I illustrate how youth penal voluntary sector (YPVS) practice operates alongside, or in tandem with the statutory criminal justice system. I argue that examining the penal voluntary sector and the statutory criminal justice system simultaneously, or in tandem, provides fuller understandings of penal voluntary sector inclusionary (and exclusionary) control practices (Tomczak and Thompson 2019). I introduce the concept of penultimate power, which demonstrates the ability of penal voluntary sector workers to trigger criminal justice system response towards a young person in conflict with the law. My novel concepts of tandem logics and penultimate power are useful for understanding penal voluntary sector practice, explaining how seemingly contradictory approaches across state and 'community' organisations not only coexist, but depend upon the tandem relationship between the penal voluntary sector and the statutory criminal justice system.This article provides a global first examination of the youth penal voluntary sector (YPVS) and a fresh analysis of 'helping' penal power. It illustrates how the penal voluntary sector operates alongside, or in tandem with, the statutory criminal justice system. I argue that examining the penal voluntary sector and the statutory criminal justice system simultaneously, or in tandem, provides fuller understandings of penal voluntary sector inclusionary (and exclusionary) control practices. 1 I introduce the concept of penultimate power, which demonstrates the ability of penal voluntary sector workers to trigger criminal justice system responses towards a young person in conflict with the law. My novel concepts of tandem logics and penultimate power are useful for understanding penal voluntary sector practice, explaining how seemingly contradictory approaches (for example,
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