Roen, KatrinaKazadi, Mujinga Deborah2026-05-142026-05-142025https://hdl.handle.net/10289/18280A developmental perspective asserts that criminal trajectories arise due to the complex interactions between environmental factors and individual factors increasing vulnerabilities towards persistent criminality. These criminal trajectories are identifiable during early childhood and represent unaddressed vulnerabilities across social, cognitive and familial contexts. The presence of serious and persistent offending amongst young people is significant because it highlights the accumulative effects of risk factors present in childhood and places them at increased risk of transitioning into persistent criminality in adulthood. It is therefore advantageous to design interventions targeting serious and persistent offending in young people. Aotearoa’s National government proposed military style academies (MSAs) as an intervention to reduce the amount of young people involved in serious and persistent offending. The combination of physical activity and rehabilitative components is proposed to alter criminal trajectories and encourage desistance from crime. This thesis investigates youth practitioner’s perceptions of MSAs, an intervention for youth with serious and persistent criminality to conceptualize how youth rehabilitation can be shaped to positively contribute to the wellbeing of Aotearoa’s most vulnerable young people. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse 11 interviews with youth practitioners with at least one year’s experience working with vulnerable youth. Four main themes and nine sub-themes were identified. The four main themes included addressing the root causes of crime, reducing re-offending, cultural considerations and the juvenile justice system. Serious and persistent offending amongst young people was viewed to be the result of a lack of early interventions targeting those at the highest risk of developing enduring criminal identities. The whānau unit was highlighted as a key target for early interventions and rehabilitative programmes. Participants raised concerns about the incongruence between MSAs and a Te Ao Māori world view. Participants suggested that MSAs failed to recognise the extent to which young people who offend are often victims first. Further, they argued that MSAs did not facilitate reintegration into the community. These factors were associated with increasing the likelihood that young people will go on to offend. These findings support the need for interventions to embrace a therapeutic model emphasizing the reconciliation and redemption of the young person. As such, the re-structure of youth rehabilitation and the juvenile justice system to more closely align with Mātauranga Māori and desistance theories can be considered a robust strategy to disrupt the care to custody pipeline so prevalent in young people who offend.enAll items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.youth rehabilitationyouth crimejuvenile justice systemMSAThesis