The University of Sydney Justice Collaboration unites researchers, students, and partners to enhance justice systems and outcomes, with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches.
This initiative spans research projects, publications, and events that engage with issues in criminal justice, youth justice, and rehabilitation.
The University of Sydney's Justice Collaboration aims to improve justice outcomes and to improve outcomes for all involved in criminal justice systems.
The University of Sydney has numerous strengths in this area and has a track record of work across disciplines, faculties and research centres directly and indirectly relevant to crime justice systems and those in conflict with the law.
Through a whole-of-university approach, the University of Sydney can have a significant positive impact on justice systems and outcomes.
We are a Sydney Policy Lab node. You can find out more about the Sydney Policy Lab here.
We engage and interact with the following centres from across the University:
The Solutionists, with Mark Scott - Interview with Prof Jioji Ravulo
Listen via the University of Sydney website
In parts of Australia, children as young as 10 years old can be tried as adults for committing certain crimes. But youth justice researchers like Jioji Ravulo say the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that a punitive approach to youth crime doesn’t make people safer, and it ends up hurting kids. He advocates instead for a model built on social work and understanding.
The juvenile justice system is under constant critique. But in this podcast episode, LLB student Julia Jacobson talks to Associate Professor Garner Clancy about why there is reason to have hope in the future of youth justice in Australia. With an emphasis on the need for innovation and interdisciplinarity in the study of law, this episode reflects on the relationship between theory and practice.
The Minefield: Smart Glasses - a new frontier of foreseeable digital harm?
There has long been a gap between the emergence of new forms of technology and the development of laws designed to mitigate their dangers. But with the rapid advances in artificial intelligence and immersive technologies, that gap is becoming increasingly problematic.
Justice Collaboration affiliate Dr Milica Stilinovic joins Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens to discuss smart glasses and digital harms.
We run events throughout the year. Check back regularly or subscribe to our newsletter for the latest seminars, tours and more.
Presented by the University of Sydney and sponsored by the City of Sydney, Raising the Bar 2026 will transform 10 inner-city bars into spaces of learning for one night only on Thursday May 7.
One in four Australians will be touched by the criminal justice system in their lifetime, whether as an offender, a victim, or a family member. But what if education, specifically the arts and humanities, could break the cycle?
For over a decade, Justice Collaboration member Dr Jedidiah Evans has run workshops in NSW prisons, bringing poetry, philosophy, and creative writing to incarcerated men and women. His research shows that meaningful education builds communities on the inside and networks on the outside. And crucially, it reduces the likelihood of people returning. This is restorative justice in action, one poem at a time.
Join Dr Evans at the Rose of Australia to find out what happens when you bring poetry and philosophy inside a prison.
Date: Thursday 7 May 2026
Time: 6:30 - 7:15pm
Venue: Rose of Australia, 1 Swanson St, Erskineville NSW 2043
You can get your free ticket for the event here.
Bridges Inside - Prison + Media (May) - About Time
Bridges Inside returns for 2026 with a series of discussions on prison exploring “prison + media”. Each session examines a different site of interaction between the prison and the media landscape to examine how the lives of incarcerated people are shaped, for good or for ill, by different forms of communication.
Prison writing is a way to reclaim and change the narrative about what prison is like and who people in prison are. About Time is a platform for people inside to express themselves, to connect in their shared reality, and to access tailored news and information. It’s also a chance for folk on the outside to bear witness, read voices often excluded from the mainstream, challenge dominant media narratives about prison and question how ideas are formed and perpetuated. This session will also explore the power and limitations of prison journalism and testimony, and how to ethically practice it in an inherently powerless place.
Date: Thursday 14 May 2026
Time: 4 - 5:30pm
Location: TBA
You can find out more about the event and book your free spot here.
Numerous University of Sydney staff have direct or indirect interest or experience in justice systems; a small number have come together to establish the Justice Collaboration.
Internal Affiliates
External Affiliates
Brenda Lin
PhD candidate, The University of Sydney Law School
Operationalisation of the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) approach to rehabilitation in NSW Youth Justice Centres through the exploration of a staff induction training course.
Laura Metcalfe
PhD (2026), The University of Sydney Law School
Luke Strong
PhD candidate, Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Restorative sound environments in adult and youth correctional facilities: Architectural considerations for the design of prisons.
Susan Morley
Master of Design candidate, Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Improving rehabilitation outcomes: Using gamification as an effective intervention approach for young offenders in NSW.
Gabriel McGuire is a fourth-year law student at the University of Sydney. He has recently completed an honours in philosophy, writing his thesis on the justifiability of juvenile incarceration: Locked Up & Locked Out: Incarceration & Children's Interests.
The Justice Collaboration was recently shortlisted for an AFR Higher Education Award for our community engagement work. This is a testament to the great work by hundreds of staff and students over the last few years. More about the category and our nomination can be found here.
Some of the many justice-related projects currently running at the University of Sydney:
A small team from the University of Sydney in partnership with colleagues in industry, has come together to explore the role of Accredited Exercise Physiologists in criminal justice settings. With significant levels of mental illness, disabilities and diverse health needs, inmates and detainees are likely to benefit greatly from services provided Accredited Exercise Physiologists within their scope of practice and as part of multidisciplinary approach to healthcare. The team has facilitated two student projects as part of the Discipline of Exercise and Sport Science’s Project-Based Learning Initiative in youth justice settings focusing on exercise delivery within high-risk youth while another group focused on presenting a value analysis of Exercise Physiology within justice system more broadly. Other groups of students have engaged with a forensic hospital where students designed exercise-focused education and activities with Indigenous consumers within the hospital. Through experiences gained via these placements, it is clear that Accredited Exercise Physiologists could play an important role in the growing work of Allied Health Professionals in criminal justice settings. The team is led by Dr Timothy Davies and includes Professor Jeanette Thom, Associate Professor Gillian Nisbet, Dr Jennifer Fleeton, Amanda Semaan, and Associate Professor Garner Clancey.
Bridges Inside, an initiative of Collaboration members Dr Jedidiah Evans and Dr Sam Shpall — in partnership with HDR students Lily Patchett and Amie Doan — will return in 2026. Bridges Inside is a forum for students, community members, and academics interested in examining prison justice alongside philosophy and literature. From August to November 2025, Bridges Inside explored “Prison and Health.” Together, participants discussed how conceptions of health shape and are shaped by the prison. Each session examined an aspect of health within the carceral space to unsettle ideas of “embodiment,” “wellbeing,” and “autonomy.” Stay tuned to find out this year's theme. More information can be found on the Bridges Inside website. Subscribe to the Bridges Inside newsletter here.
Led by Collaboration Director Associate Professor Garner Clancey, the Human Services Hub is an initiative at the University of Sydney to provide students who might work in one of the many human services with an opportunity to hear from practitioners, learn skills, develop professional networks and to receive updates on relevant policy reforms. A series of free events will be open to University of Sydney students who might want to work in (but not limited to): child protection, criminal justice, disability support, alcohol and other drugs, mental health, social justice, and welfare systems/agencies. Students from the following disciplines might be especially interested in the activities of the Human Services Hub: social work, education, psychology, allied health, law, criminology, socio-legal studies, and public policy. Keep an eye out for Human Services Hub events advertised above.
In addition to these student placements, students have worked on various voluntary or for-credit projects. Some have included:
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