Young Women's Justice Project

Influencing change in the criminal justice sector

The ‘Young Women's Justice Project’ engages with young women (17-25), front-line practitioners and other experts, with the aim of:

• Building a strong and credible evidence base about the needs of girls and young women in contact with the criminal justice system;
• Influencing government policy and strategies to take account of younger women, with a focus on Black, Asian and minoritised and care experienced girls and young women;
• Enabling the development of effective practice through more gender and age-informed policy;
• Empowering girls and young women as advocates to safely share their experiences and use their voices to make change.

Throughout this work, we have explored and advocated for how practical changes to policy and practice can improve the experiences of young women in contact with the criminal justice system.

Young women and multiple unmet needs

The work foregrounds the links between young women’s experiences of multiple unmet needs – such as mental health challenges, poverty, gendered abuse, exclusion from school, having no safe place to call home, or experience of the care system – and their contact with the criminal justice system.

Our most recently published project briefing, A Call to Action, highlighted that, in 2022, self-harm incidents among young women aged 21-24 surpassed all other age groups across women’s prisons.

In 2024, whilst announcing the establishment of the Women’s Justice Board, the ‘acute challenge’ of young women in custody, and their levels of self-harm, was named by Shabana Mahmood as one of its three core priorities.

The project has now been running for five years, and is currently funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust.