Papers by Siobhan McAlister
Northern Ireland: how some of the 'agreement generation' are drawn into paramilitary group
“Don’t be so formal, I’m normal”: A research report on the mental health of looked after children/care leavers in Northern Ireland
Negotiating Risky Research: Reflections on research with marginalised youth in a conflict-affected society
Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 2008
The views expressed in this issue are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily refl... more The views expressed in this issue are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute of Criminology or the institution with which they are affiliated. Whilst every reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of this publication, no liability is assumed for any errors or omissions. Current Issues in Criminal Justice is a peer reviewed journal. The Editorial Board would like to thank the reviewers of submissions to this issue of the Journal.
Note: This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in A... more Note: This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Addiction following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version [Percy A, McAlister S, Higgins K, McCrystal P and Thornton M (2005) Response consistency in young adolescents’ drug use self-reports: a recanting rate analysis, Addiction, 100, 189-196] is available online at
Table 1: Interview and Focus Group Participants Code Organisation / Department CI1 Mental Health ... more Table 1: Interview and Focus Group Participants Code Organisation / Department CI1 Mental Health representative CI2 Safeguarding Board CI3 NGO LGBTQ+ Youth CI4 CI5 Department of Health (2 representatives) CI6 Department of Education CI7 Education Authority CI8 CI9 NGO Children's sector (2 representatives) CI10 Public Health Agency CI11 NGO Disability CI12 NGO Disability CI13 NASUWT CI14 Department for Communities FG1 Children/youth sector (3 representatives) (focus on broad issues) FG2 Youth Justice Agency (3 representatives) FG3 NGO Early years (3 representatives) FG4 NGOs children/youth (3 representatives) (focus on refugee children/asylum) FG5 NGOs youth sector (3 representatives) (focus on protection from harm/looked after children) FG6 NGOs youth sector (5 representatives) (focus on youth & community work) FG7 Health and Social Care Board (4 representatives)
A New and Better Normal: The Impact of Covid-19 on the Planning and Delivery of Children's Services: A Rights Review
Centre for Children's Rights, Oct 1, 2021
This report is one in a suite of four considering the needs of victims and survivors undertaken o... more This report is one in a suite of four considering the needs of victims and survivors undertaken over a three-year period during which responses to Covid-19 greatly affected the way in which fieldwork could be conducted. This research was commissioned by the Commission for Victims and Survivors (The Commission). The researchers engaged with key stakeholders in policy and service provision, community workers and parents, and with over 100 children and young people aged 14-24. Within the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989), the study illustrates the ongoing transgenerational impacts of the Troubles/Conflict on the lives of children, young people and parents throughout Northern Ireland and the border regions. The Commission is grateful to all those who have contributed to the research process not least because of the sensitivities and reflections these considerations require. This study builds upon and develops previous research on transgenerational legacy. The 'twogeneration approach' (O'Neill et al., 2015) was adopted as a core principle to ensure that the focus is not only on the needs of specific generations, but also on the relationships between them. A key focus of the research, grounded in a Child Rights Based Approach (Lundy & McEvoy, 2012), was to embed young people's participation in all facets of the project, including in the design of data collection instruments, use of participatory research methods, analysis of research findings, and forming research recommendations. Based on the findings from the extensive qualitative research programme undertaken across multiple sites, the report presents a series of findings and recommendations that require serious consideration by service commissioners and providers, practitioners and policy makers. Recommendations from the research include revising the school curriculum, in consultation with parents/guardians and young people, to consider the delivery of teaching related to the Troubles/Conflict; consulting young people about the ways in which they would like to express culture and identity; safe spaces for young people in which to learn about the Troubles/Conflict and their culture; community-based programmes to be developed in consultation with communities most impacted by the Troubles/Conflict; addressing the range of push and pull 'It Didn't End in 1998' Executive Summary … to address the consequences of the Troubles. Obviously, that means everyone, from cradle to the grave, and clearly the Troubles and the Conflict hasn't entirely ended in any case. So, you have young people who are still being affected today, but it's also the case that young people who aren't being directly affected today have grown up in households where parents or grandparents were affected.' (KSI7) 'It's simple to know what I would want [for the future], but it's probably never happening. The likes of religions and stuff, or bomb scares and all this crap, should just be forgot about, but I think … if that ever is going to happen it will take a good lot more generations ... (CYPFG9) Background to the Project The 30-year-old period of ethno-political conflict and civil unrest in Northern Ireland, colloquially known as 'the Troubles' 1 , has had a lasting impact on economic, social and cultural life. Children and young people have experienced directly or indirectly decades of conflict, violence and sectarian divisions, and many continue to deal with legacy issues from the region's 'troubled' past. A number of research studies undertaken in recent years have highlighted how the legacy of the Troubles/Conflict continues to affect the lives of children and young people growing up across Northern Ireland, and to a lesser extent, cross-border areas. This study, focusing on the transgenerational 2 impacts of Conflict legacy on the lives of children and young people and their parents, builds on previous research on transgenerational legacy which, to date, has mainly focused on the transmission of trauma and mental health difficulties (
Case Study: Researching Children’s Rights in the Context of Northern Ireland
Feature Number 3 December 2017 www . ark . ac . uk The minimum age of criminal responsibility (MA... more Feature Number 3 December 2017 www . ark . ac . uk The minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) is a controversial and contested issue, subject to political wrangling, public concern and academic scrutiny. The age of criminal responsibility is the minimum age at which a child who commits an offence is considered to have attained the necessary maturity to understand their actions, can be charged and held responsible in a criminal procedure. Northern Ireland (along with England and Wales) has one of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility in Europe, with children being held responsible for their actions from the age of ten.
Young People, Crime and Justice in Northern Ireland
Criminal Justice in Transition : The Northern Ireland Context
Scoping Study ______________________________________________________________ Lack of System and O... more Scoping Study ______________________________________________________________ Lack of System and Outcome Data____________________________________________ Repurposing of Woodlands __________________________________________________ PACE and Place of Safety ____________________________________________________ Over-representation of children in care________________________________________ Capacity of the Regional Campus, Regulation and Integrated Provision _________
Journal of Youth Studies
Despite a growth in analysis of women and conflict, this has tended to overlook the specific expe... more Despite a growth in analysis of women and conflict, this has tended to overlook the specific experiences of young women. Likewise, in research on youth, conflict and peace, the term 'youth' is often shorthand for young men. Young women's experiences are regularly absent from research and policy discourse, and as a consequence, also absent from public understanding and practice responses. In this paper, we prioritise the views of and on young women to forefront their experiences of one specific form of conflict-related violenceparamilitary violence. We demonstrate that forefronting young women's experiences, and adopting an understanding of violence beyond that which privileges physical violence, unearths the multiple ways in which conflict-related violence is experienced. We further demonstrate how adopting an intersectional lens that prioritises age and gender can surface the specific experiences of young women, and the various ways in which these become silenced by cultures that omit, coerce, reduce and minimise.
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Papers by Siobhan McAlister