Social Determinants of Justice Research Hub presents at Reintegration Puzzle Conference

This June, members of the Social Determinants of Justice Research Hub had the privilege of travelling to Tarndanya on Kaurna Country to the 19th Reintegration Puzzle Conference, hosted by the Justice Reform Initiative. Both the Social Determinants of Justice Research Hub and Dharriwaa Elders Group with Yuwaya Ngarra-li presented at the conference alongside incredible presentations from people with lived expertise, community and public sector practitioners, First Nations leaders, researchers and advocates. We were also fortunate to hear from four international guests Matelina M. Aulava (Hawai'i), Dr David McGuire (Spain), Karyn McCluskey (Scotland) and Vincent Schiraldi (USA) who shared lessons from their jurisdictions, providing inspiration for how substantive reform in Australia is possible. Karyn McCluskey, Chief Executive at Community Justice Scotland, later described the participants of the conference as “hugely impressive", recognising the “embarrassment of riches” of evidence and expertise that exist in Australia.
 
We presented the history of the research behind the social determinants of justice and the work we are doing to translate this into a holistic policy framework to address the criminalisation of children and young people. Our researchers Ruth McCausland, Peta MacGillivray, Samantha Rich and Andrea Hadaway spoke about the importance of approaches that address all the social determinants, particularly the structural determinants (the causes of the causes of criminalisation and incarceration).