Kick-off Y-Justlang

Mai Fleetwood-Bird: “My background is that of speech- and language therapist (SLT), and I have been working as an SLT for twenty-one years with young people with speech and language difficulties in Rotterdam. Now, I work at Erasmus School of Law, combining my knowledge of SLT and criminal law in my research. My research topic, the language skills of young suspects and the implications for the youth justice system, was partly the reason for the COST application, and I was one of the proposers.”

COST Actions are a funding instrument of the European Union within the Horizon Europe Programme. All COST Actions last four years and aim to bring together researchers from different countries and different disciplines working on related topics. The aim is to strengthen the networks of scientists across Europe and enhance Europe's ability to deal with scientific, technological, and societal challenges.  

COST Action Y-JustLang addresses the lack of consistent policies to establish the language abilities that children and adolescents need to possess to participate effectively in justice proceedings. The journey through criminal justice is based on highly verbal processes that require a level of verbal ability that is unlikely among young offenders. Research in English-speaking countries shows that the prevalence of language impairment is up to six times higher in the population of youth offenders; if undiagnosed and untreated, it increases the risk of re-offending.   

Y-JustLang's main aim is to create a transnational platform to raise awareness and develop knowledge and tools to improve the current undermining of human rights derived from a lack of policies and appropriate language assessments for young people involved in justice services. The Action will provide a roadmap to establish the language needs affecting young offenders across countries in Europe and beyond, to develop a blueprint of assessment tools that can measure language ability, and raise awareness among the stakeholders involved (health professionals, the police, law and criminology professionals, education and children services) on the importance of early identification. The roadmap will also make evidence-based recommendations on linguistic structures used in justice systems that present a comprehension barrier across young populations and on the critical points in the journey through justice where language ability must be assessed.   

Meanwhile, ninety-eight people working with young offenders from a scientific, policy or practice perspective have joined Y-JustLang, including Jolande uit Beijerse, Professor of Judicial Youth Interventions at Erasmus School of Law. The participants come from twenty-four different countries. Never has there been a collaboration between law and linguistics on this scale. Fleetwood-Bird: “I represent the Netherlands in the Management Committee of COST Action with Jeannette Schaeffer, Professor of Language Acquisition at the University of Amsterdam. Among other things, the Management Committee decides on the work plan and the budget. The first meeting of the Management Committee took place on 23 October in Brussels and also marked the kick-off of the four-year COST Action. Because of my substantive interest, I also chair the working group ‘Legal frameworks for the youth justice system’.”