We are delighted to announce that two new youth justice leaders are joining our Associates scheme : Associate Professor Diana Johns (University of Melbourne) and Dr Grace Robinson (Black Box Research and Consultuncy).
Diana Johns is Chair of Criminology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She is a qualitative, community-engaged researcher who works with people often described as ‘hard-to-reach’, including people who have been criminalised and/or imprisoned, young people, and African Australian communities. Her research is focused on the effects of criminalisation, the impacts of imprisonment, and the possibilities of restorative, relational and reintegrative justice practices. Her first book, Being and Becoming an Ex-Prisoner drew upon her PhD reserach, and was published by Routledge in 2018. Her collaborative writing projects include two new books: Place, Race and Politics: The Anatomy of a Law and Order Crisis (Weber et al. Emerald, 2021) and Coproduction and Criminal Justice (Johns et al. Routledge, 2022). Some of you will remember Diana from the 2022 National Youth Justice Conference; ICYMI you can still watch her keynote address – ‘Killing Time – childhood, time and justice’ below:
Dr Grace Robinson is the founder and CEO of Black Box Research and Consultancy, a criminal justice consultancy specializing in modern slavery, and Co-Founder of Youth In Justice, a CIC set up to provide trauma-informed support to those affected by modern slavery. Grace has worked as an Expert Witness on over 300 modern slavery case and consulted on the Nationality and Borders Bill with members of the House of Lords. Areas of focus within her work range from exploring the impact of Covid-19 on County Lines to looking at the intersection between cognitive impairment and exploitation; from human trafficking to the online sexual exploitation of children. We are grateful to Grace and Diana for choosing to join the scheme; we look forward to collaborating with them in the months and years ahead.
We would also like to thank those Associates who are coming to the end of their tenure for their many and varied contributions to our knowledge exchange work over the last two years. Our thanks go to: Professor Clare Allely, Associate Professor Anthony Charles, Dr Johanne Miller and Aamer Anwar. It has been a privelege to work alongside you all, and we hope to continue to do so in the months and years ahead.