Dr Hope Kent of the University of Exeter will present research using linked government data at an online ONS event on 26 November 2026, exploring how school exclusion and unmet needs drive children’s contact with youth justice.
Looked-after children are criminalised at five times the rate of children in the general population, according to a peer-reviewed study — a figure that sits at the heart of an upcoming Office for National Statistics seminar examining why children with neurodisability are disproportionately drawn into the justice system. The event, titled “Criminalisation of children with neurodisability: Insights from admin data”, runs from 10:30am to 11:30am on 26 November 2026 via Microsoft Teams.
The speaker is Dr Hope Kent, a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter whose work is funded through the ADR UK Research Fellowship programme. Her research draws on linked administrative data from the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education to trace how school exclusion, unmet educational needs and child poverty shape children’s contact with the youth justice system.
Neurodisability is used as an umbrella term in the research, covering conditions including autism, acquired brain injury, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia. The figures show that these children face systemic disadvantages across education, health and welfare systems — and the research calls for earlier intervention and population-level public-health approaches to youth justice rather than reactive criminal-justice responses.
Related University of Exeter research examined data from 3,000 adults in prison and reported an association between poorer neurodisability-screening scores, school exclusion and a younger age at first conviction. Each additional school exclusion was associated with an earlier first conviction, though the precise effect size has not been independently verified from the available official event material.
The ONS noted that Dr Kent received a commendation at the previous year’s ONS Research Excellence Awards. The seminar forms part of the ONS Research Excellence Series, which has a November theme of crime and justice.
Key information
- Event: “Criminalisation of children with neurodisability: Insights from admin data”
- Date and time: 26 November 2026, 10:30am to 11:30am
- Format: Online via Microsoft Teams
- Registration: Available through the ONS Research Excellence Series event page
Source: @ONS
ONS seminar to examine how neurodisability shapes children's paths into the justice system Quiz
5 questions