Navigating risk: young women's pathways through the care, education and criminal justice systems

Larsson, Birgit, Schofield, Gillian, Biggart, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1233-9787, Ward, Emma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7579-3215, Dodsworth, Jane and Scaife, Victoria (2024) Navigating risk: young women's pathways through the care, education and criminal justice systems. Child and Family Social Work, 29 (3). pp. 818-829. ISSN 1356-7500

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Abstract

The criminalization of young women in care remains an important practice and policy issue in England despite 2018 national guidance and the subsequent development of local authority protocols to reduce the criminalization of care-experienced young people. This paper contributes to the emerging research on young women whose behaviour challenges professionals, through secondary analysis of case file data and narrative interviews with 24 care-experienced young women from a national project on care and offending. Analysis focused on young women's pathways through the care, justice and education systems and identified five domains within young women's lives where available risk or resilience factors were significant in directing young women towards prosocial opportunities, to new types of victimization or to criminalization and offending. These domains consisted of placements and caregiver relationships; partner relationships; pregnancy and motherhood; participation in education; and the transition to adulthood through leaving care. The paper concludes with implications for practice for professionals working with young women, in particular emphasizing that how the care, justice and education systems respond to young women can contribute to negative pathways or transform them.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding information: Funded by the Big Lottery Fund as a partnership between TACT, a fostering charity, and the University of East Anglia.
Uncontrolled Keywords: criminal justice,education,gender,out-of-home care,resilience,risk,health(social science),sociology and political science,sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3306
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Social Work
Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Research on Children and Families
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Child Protection & Family Support
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Social Cognition Research Group
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Lifespan Health
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 13 Jan 2024 01:37
Last Modified: 14 Dec 2024 01:37
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/94168
DOI: 10.1111/cfs.13139

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