The potential role of juvenile correctional centres in preventing violence and radicalism

This online webinar was recorded on Tuesday 19th May for the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice. Dr Lilian Ayete-Nyampong (Research Centre Director at the Head Office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice in Ghana), chaired by Dr Milena Tripkovic (University of Edinburgh) presented her research on the potential role of juvenile correctional centres in preventing violence and radicalism amid global security concerns. Abstract Drawing on four years of ethnographic research in Ghana’s juvenile correctional centres (2008–2013) and follow-up visits in 2019 and 2023, this presentation explores children lived experiences of neglect, agency, and resistance within custodial settings. Findings reveal that incarcerated youth often express deep anger and a sense of betrayal rooted in persistent familial neglect - before, during, and after confinement - exacerbated by systemic failures to safeguard juvenile rights. Such neglect intensifies vulnerability, leaving young offenders susceptible to cycles of violence, vengeance, and radicalization. Against this backdrop, the author considers how correctional centres might serve as sites for preventing violence and radicalism, situating juvenile justice within broader landscapes of security, family relations, and intergenerational support. By departing from normative treaty-based conceptions of rights, discussions draw on practical meanings youth attach to survival and correction, calling for reflective, context-sensitive reforms that bridge practitioner perspectives with everyday realities across Ghana and Africa. ————————————————— Biography Dr Lilian Ayete-Nyampong is the Director of the Research Department at the Head office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) of Ghana. The Commission has approximately 100 regional and district offices nationwide. She has worked with the Commission for more than two decades. Lilian transits between practitioner and researcher roles and views the implementation of codified human rights laws as being intersected by everyday contexts informed by lived realities. Lilian’s work on the lived realities of incarcerated juveniles was recently recognized through the award of a publishing contract with the Bristol University Press. If you want to find out more about the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research please visit our website https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/ Music: Upbeat Corporate by The Mountain.