A novel approach for understanding trauma-related youth violence in low resource contexts: A retrospective case file review in Northern Ireland

Colm Walsh, Queen’s University Belfast, Kelvin Doherty, Youth Justice Agency of Northern Ireland, Paul Best, Queen’s University Belfast

Adverse life events during childhood have been associated with increased rates of violence. Despite decades of violent conflict, there continues to be a paucity of contextually relevant data related to youth violence in Northern Ireland.

Prospective studies are useful but these require time and resources that are not often available. In the absence of such studies, there remains a need to understand the prevalence and impact of serious youth violence in a cost-effective and timely way.

The primary aim of this study is to present a novel method for collecting and analyzing violence related data using existing administrative data through a retrospective case file review of young people aged 10–18 who spent time in custodial services over a 1-year period (January 2019 to December 2019) in Northern Ireland.

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