Research

Since 2006, the CJRC has undertaken over 33 major studies and received more than $3.3 million in funding and in-kind support for a range of criminal justice studies, evaluations and reviews. These projects showcase our expertise across topics ranging from children crossing over from child protection into youth justice systems, children of prisoners, the impact of criminal records checks, practice skills in youth and adult criminal justice, family work models in youth justice, and ageing in prison. The CJRC has also delivered a range of consultancies to criminal justice agencies in Australia (including across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland Western Australia) and internationally (e.g. Jersey (UK), New Orleans and Minnesota (US), Ottawa (Canada), and Taiwan.

CURRENT RESEARCH

The CJRC is currently hosting the following funded research projects:

  • 2022-2024: Mapping the needs of children affected by parental imprisonment (Community funding - SHINE for Kids)
  • 2021-22: Disability Royal Commission (Commissioned Research): Care criminalisation of young people with disability in child protection systems.  
  • 2020-22: Criminology Research Grant (Australian Institute of Criminology): Children’s Court responses to young offenders: provisions and outcomes for 10 to 13 year-old children charged with offending
  • 2019-21: Discovery Early Career Research Award (Australian Research Council): Dual Child Protection and Youth Justice Clients: Expanding the evidence base.
  • 2018-20: Linkage Grant (Australian Research Council): Towards an effective practice model for youth detention.

COMPLETED PROJECTS

Mapping the needs and experiences of children affected by parental imprisonment (Flynn et al. 2023)

Research Report - Care Criminalisation of Children with Disability in Child Protection Systems. Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (2022, Baidawi, S., Ball, R., Newitt, R., Turnbull, L., Kembhavi-Tam, G., Avery, S., & Sheehan, R.)

'Crossover' Children in the Youth Justice and Child Protection Systems (2020) Susan Baidawi and Rosemary Sheehan
Imprisoned fathers: responding to a growing concern (2019) Edited text (Catherine Flynn, Social Work & Michelle Butler – Criminology, Queens University Belfast)
Children of Prisoners (2015) Edited text (Anna Eriksson - Criminology & Catherine Flynn - Social Work).