Researching Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Youth Justice System: Reflections on Methodology From a Members of a Non-Indigenous Research Team

• Author: Andrew Day,Catia Malvaso
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211058951
• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Date: 01 May 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211058951

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(6-7) 707 –719

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211058951

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Article

Researching Adverse

Childhood Experiences in

the Youth Justice System:

Reflections on Methodology

From a Members of a Non-

Indigenous Research Team

Andrew Day1 and Catia Malvaso2

Abstract

Understanding the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has rapidly

emerged as an important area of research that has implications for those who work

in youth justice settings. This paper identifies a series of considerations facing those

who work in jurisdictions where Indigenous or First Nations peoples have much

higher levels of contact with both child protection and criminal justice systems than

other population groups. It presents some reflections from members of a non-

Indigenous research team about their efforts to engage with cultural perspectives

on ACEs research in a way that facilitates further discussion within the research

community about the methodological decisions that are made when investigating

issues that are of importance to members of minority culture communities.

Keywords

Indigenous, adverse childhood experiences, methodology, research, Aboriginal,

quantitative

Recent years have seen growing interest—both internationally and across Australia—

in understanding the ways in which negative childhood experiences are related to

1University of Melbourne, Australia

2University of Adelaide, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Andrew Day, School of Social and Political Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus, 404 John

Medley West, Melbourne 3010, Australia.

Email: day.a@unimelb.edu.au

1058951IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X211058951International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyDay and Malvaso

research-article2021