Care-experienced Children and the Criminal Justice System

By Andrew McGrath, Alison Gerard, and Emma Colvin

The current study examines the factors underlying pathways from out-of-home care into the criminal justice system. Using a multi-method approach—specifically, court observations, file reviews, and qualitative interviews—we found evidence of how histories of trauma and situational factors relating to the care environment interact to increase criminalization. While many policy initiatives have been developed to address this criminalization, in all parts of our study we found little evidence these are having an impact on practice in relation to care-experienced children. Some innovations we observed in our United Kingdom case study offer potential solutions to address this serious and ongoing problem.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 600. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2020. 14p.