Tell us about yourself

I am a Professor and Director of the Child and Adolescent Neurodevelopmental Diversity (CANDY) research group at the University of York.

My research programme is based around fitting advanced statistical models to existing large datasets. My substantive expertise is in child and adolescent development. I am interested in:

• Social functioning (e.g., anti-social behaviour, behavioural difficulties, youth offending, ADHD, bullying etc.)
• Emotional functioning (e.g., depression, anxiety, wellbeing etc.)
• Cognitive and learning differences (e.g., autism, developmental language disorder, dyslexia etc.)

Why did you want to become a Research Affiliate?

I wanted to become an Affiliate of the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre so that I can keep up-to-date about the Centre’s outputs and events. This will allow me and my research group to develop stronger research networks with other researchers across the University of York, and further afield.

Whilst I have been working on the topic of child and adolescent development, including behavioural difficulties, for nearly a decade, I am new to the area of youth offending. I have been recently awarded funding to investigate the relationship between special educational needs and youth offending. I want to continue this line of research and expand to understand what works to reduce youth offending in vulnerable populations.

How does your research connect to the Centre’s mission and values?

The Centre’s mission involves reshaping how the police and other organisations work together in order to reduce harm among vulnerable people. My research programme is focused on vulnerable young people (i.e., those with special educational needs and mental health difficulties). These populations are at increased risk of coming into contact with the police and having poorer outcomes after such contact. Approximately 80% of those cautioned or convicted of a violent crime in England have a special educational need. These young people are less likely to receive a caution and more likely to be given a custodial sentence. I want to develop a programme of work to address this inequality in the justice system so that the system works fairly for everyone.