Lead supervisor:
Prof Donald Forrester 
Other supervisor(s):
- Dr Nell Warner
Start date: October 2023 (Full time)
Award: Collaborative
Subject Pathway:
Social Care, Social Work and Social Policy
Thematic Cluster:
Society and Well-Being Cluster
In partnership with:
Longer-term health and criminal justice outcomes for care experienced young people
My research hopes to investigate the effect of social service intervention on criminal justice outcomes for high risk young people in our society. I will be linking data from the SAIL databank to answer my research question.
Risk factors for poor criminal justice outcomes such as poor mental health, exclusion from school, substance misuse, among many others, are detectable within the administrative data, allowing me to extract my sample of interest. Once this stage is complete, I will link further datasets allowing me to determine whether my sample have received intervention or support from social services, also paying attention to what kind of support this might be, when it began and the longevity of the support. I then aim to group my sample based on this intervention to determine the effects of different types of social services intervention on the likelihood of entering the criminal justice system and receiving a criminal conviction.
The inspiration for this work comes from my time spent as a support worker, working with young people in my local community who formed the highest risk group for poor criminal justice outcomes, through the presence of numerous associated risk factors and their experience of incredible hardships. I felt at the time that the support offered to this subgroup of high risk young people was not sufficient or appropriate in many cases. I am excited that my PhD research will allow me to investigate whether my practical observations are reflected in the data at a national level.
Research Impact
If my practical observations are indeed reflected in the data, and those at the greatest risk of poor criminal justice outcomes are not receiving sufficient and appropriate support, the policy and practice implications could be significant. This work would need further development through additional study based on the findings of this PhD.