Mind The Gap:Gender, care experience & Youth Justice involvement in England

About the talk.

From the winner of ONS Research Excellence Awards 2024 - Impact of Analysis Award

This talk will draw on findings from an ADR UK Fellowship project that explored the intersections between care experience (i.e. having been in foster care, children’s home and/or kinship care) and youth justice involvement in England, among other intersectional factors. Using linked administrative datasets from the Ministry of Justice and Department for Education, the talk will demonstrate that care-experienced girls are particularly likely to have youth justice involvement compared to girls who have not been in care, and that the gap in youth justice involvement between girls and boys is narrower for those with care experience. Taking a critical perspective, this paper will reflect on the potential for administrative data to challenge such injustices and effect real change.

Read the highlighted publication on the ADR UK website to learn more here.

Meet the presenters.

Dr Katie Hunter, Manchester Metropolitan University

Katie is a Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University. A former ADR UK Research Fellow, Katie used newly linked administrative data from the Ministry of Justice and Department for Education to explore the relationship between having been in care (i.e. foster care, children’s homes and/or kinship care) and youth justice involvement, and how this intersects with other factors such as ethnicity and gender. Katie is broadly interested in the processes of criminalisation and how this impacts various groups.

Dr Claire Fitzpatrick, Lancaster University

Claire is a Reader in Criminology at Lancaster University. Her research explores the criminalisation of children in care; gendered pathways between care and custody; and injustice at the intersection of welfare and punishment systems. Claire previously led the Nuffield Foundation-funded Disrupting the Routes between Care and Custody study.

Talk related animation

Learn more about the series

Each year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) organises a collection of online research events called the Research Excellence Series. The series showcases exceptional research projects that use a diverse wealth of invaluable research data. These data are used by researchers to produce new insights, inform change and make a difference in people’s lives.

Research Excellence Series 2025 will delve into the story of a unique research project. From inception to methodology, dissemination and impact. These sessions will be hosted by an eclectic range of speakers from across the research community.

This year’s series will include the winners from the ONS Research Excellence Awards 2024.

The events will take place through Microsoft Teams. They will also be recorded and available to watch later.

Getting in touch

For more information about this event, please visit the ONS SRS website, or email srs.engagement.team@ons.gov.uk.

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