Complex Lives: The enduring impact of care-experience for people in the justice system

Summary:

Children with experience of out-of-home care are criminalised at five times the rate of their peers. In this webinar, I will present findings from two studies examining the long-term legacy of care-experience for adults who are in the criminal justice system.

Drawing on data from about 3,000 prisoners in a male prison in Wales, and 66 women in contact with the criminal justice system in Wales, I will explore how the vulnerabilities associated with care-experience do not end in childhood but endure to shape the life-course of those in contact with the justice system. For women, these vulnerabilities also intersect with gendered pathways into the justice system, including domestic abuse and acquired brain injury, and dramatically elevated rates of suicide attempts.

I will consider what these findings mean for children's services and social care practice, and how early identification of neurodisability and investment in care leavers can disrupt these cycles of disadvantage.

Bios:

Dr Hope Kent is a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham, working on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Her research primarily uses administrative data to understand why children and young people with neurodisabilities (particularly acquired brain injury) are over-represented in the criminal justice system, and what we could do upstream in health, education, and social care to prevent this. Hope is a qualified Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner and has experience in the NHS, specialising in delivering mental health interventions for people with long-term health conditions. She co-ordinates the UKABIF Acquired Brain Injury Justice Network, and the TRYJustice Network.

Relevant links:

• https://www.emerald.com/ijoph/article-abstract/19/4/512/390875/Looked-after-children-in-prison-as-adults-life?redirectedFrom=fulltext
• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17488958261443401

[Trigger warning: This webinar will include discussion of domestic abuse, acquired brain injury, and suicidality. Please prioritise your wellbeing and attend only if it feels right for you and take breaks as needed]

Important Info:

This webinar will be recorded and shared on the CYCJ website. Cameras and mics will be switched off to all attendees, only the speakers and organisers of the event will have their cameras on. If you have any questions throughout the webinar you will be able to add them into the chat and the speakers will try to answer as many as possible at the end.

All registered attendees will be contacted with team's link 24 hours before each session. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact cycj@strath.ac.uk.

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