Children, Care and Crime

The historical context of colonisation situates the analysis in Children, Care and Crime of the involvement of children with care experience in the criminal justice system in an Australian jurisdiction focusing on residential care, policing, the provision of legal services, and interactions in the Children's Court.

Alison Gerard is the Head of the Canberra Law School, University of Canberra, Ngunnawal Country. Her research program focuses on social justice and has been published in leading international and Australian journals. She is currently a CI on an ARC Discovery Project examining 'Crimmigration' in Australia. Alison has co-published on the incorporation of Indigenous perspectives in university curriculum. Andrew McGrath is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Charles Sturt University. His PhD research, in which he interviewed 200 young people after they appeared before the NSW Children's Court, was published as a journal article that won the Allen Austin Bartholomew Award for best article published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology in 2009. Since then, he has published a number of articles in both Australian and International journals on topics ranging from the impact of custodial penalties on re-offending, the sentencing of young Indigenous offenders, serious and violent offending careers and juvenile risk assessment. Emma Colvin is a Senior Lecturer in law and criminology at Charles Sturt University in NSW Australia, Wiradyuri/Wiradjuri Country. Her research explores the criminalisation of groups of people, such as children with experience of the out-of-home care system. Her research also examines bail and the impact of risk determinations on people perceived as risky because of their vulnerability or disadvantage, such as homelessness or substance use. Emma's work has been published by high-quality publishers and high-impact journals, and she has attracted government and charitable funding to support her research interests. Annette Gainsford is a Wiradyuri woman from Bathurst NSW and is the Associate Dean Indigenous Teaching and Learning in the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Leadership and Engagement at the University of Technology, Sydney. Annette has extensive experience in Indigenous curriculum development that embeds Indigenous graduate attributes across higher education curriculum. Her experience specifically covers the disciplines of law, criminal justice, business, and education. She is a recognised leader and expert in the field of Indigenous pedagogy, andragogy, and Indigenous research methodologies.

Introduction Chapter 1: Historical and contemporary contexts of out-of-home care Chapter 2: Care-experience, trauma, Abuse and the criminal justice system Chapter 3: The residential care environment Chapter 4: Policing children with care experience Chapter 5 Lawyers, cultural competence and advising children with care experience Chapter 6: Care-experienced children in the NSW Children's Court Chapter 7: Gender and criminalisation Chapter 8: Reducing criminalisation: innovations from England and Wales Conclusion: 'hope tropes' and routine criminalisation