This project uses the framework provided by the NSW Child Development Study to identify early life risk factors, developmental mediators and outcomes associated with criminal justice system contact for young people. The project focused on first police contact as a potential means of identifying young people at-risk of a wide range of adverse outcomes in later life, to inform the development of services and interventions aimed at preventing young people becoming enmeshed in the criminal justice system.

This project leveraged linked population data from the NSW Child Development Study, a longitudinal study of a state-wide population of children (N=~91,000) and their parents, for whom we have linked records from multiple government departments with information from teacher- and child-reported cross-sectional surveys completed at ages 5 and 11 years respectively.

This project received funding from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Projects Grant DP170101403, 2017 – 19) and is now completed.

Completed PhD students: Dr Ulrika Athanassoiu