NCJ Number
212193
Date Published
2005
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study examined the strength and nature of the public's willingness to volunteer for work with youth in England and Wales.
Abstract
Questions pertinent to this study were placed on 1 wave of the MORI Telephone Omnibus, and a nationally representative quota sample of 1,000 adults ages 16 and over were interviewed between March 18 and 23, 2004. Forty percent of respondents indicated they had some knowledge of the youth justice system; however, the majority stated they knew "not very much" or "nothing at all." Those who reported they were "very interested" in doing volunteer work with youth were more likely to have stated they knew "a lot" about the youth justice system. The same respondents who were "very" or "fairly interested" in doing volunteer work with youth also were interested in knowing more about the youth justice system. Thirty-three percent of all respondents indicated they would be interested in volunteer work with youth who have offended (excluding those found guilty of serious crimes). Just over half were not interested in such volunteer work. Extrapolating from the responses, the study estimates that approximately 13.6 million adults in England and Wales would have some level of interest in volunteering to work with youth. Those "very interested" in such volunteer work tended to be women and to have above-average contact with persons employed in the criminal justice system. The most popular preferences for type of volunteer work with youth were helping them to learn reading, writing, or basic math. Those interested in volunteer work were willing to spend between 1 and 4 hours a week in volunteer work. Those interested in volunteering conditioned their interest on support from professional staff and training prior to beginning the work.