Justice and Child Protection and Welfare Intersections

CALL FOR PAPERS

Justice and Child Protection and Welfare Intersections

Journal: Children and Youth Services Review

Publisher: Elsevier

Submission Deadline: 31 May 2026

Introduction

Across jurisdictions, distinct boundaries are often drawn between welfare and justice responses to children — shaped by institutional structures, legislative frameworks, and differing minimum ages of criminal responsibility. Yet evidence shows significant overlap between these systems — with care-experienced and child protection-involved young people disproportionately represented in youth justice and later in adult criminal justice populations.

This "crossover" phenomenon highlights the complex, interlinked influences of trauma, adversity, systemic factors, and institutional practices on young people's trajectories. This Special Issue explores these intersections between child protection and welfare systems and youth justice systems — a key area of contemporary policy and practice concern.

Scope & Significance

This Special Issue seeks to advance understanding of these intersections through theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented contributions. It invites analyses of multi-system factors shaping young people's trajectories — with attention to inequalities linked to race, gender, and social class.

Contributors are encouraged to examine approaches, interagency collaboration, and models of practice addressing over-representation and improving outcomes. The Special Issue also welcomes work exploring the application of children's rights standards, secure care provision, and strategies to uphold welfare principles within justice contexts.

In light of evolving evidence and shifting policy landscapes, the Special Issue aims to foster renewed, interdisciplinary thinking on the convergence of welfare and justice for young people.

List of Topic Areas

Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:

1. The crossover phenomenon — care-experienced young people in youth justice systems

2. Disproportionate representation of child protection-involved youth in justice populations

3. Trauma, adversity, and their role in shaping young people's welfare-justice trajectories

4. Institutional and systemic factors driving overlap between welfare and justice systems

5. Race, gender, and social class inequalities at the welfare-justice interface

6. Interagency collaboration and multi-system responses to crossover youth

7. Models of practice addressing over-representation and improving young people's outcomes

8. Children's rights standards — application within welfare and justice contexts

9. Secure care provision — balancing welfare and justice principles

10. Minimum age of criminal responsibility and its implications for crossover youth

11. Legislative and policy frameworks shaping the welfare-justice intersection

12. Comparative and international analyses of welfare-justice systems for young people

13. Post-care trajectories into adult criminal justice — pathways and prevention

14. Therapeutic, restorative, and child-centered approaches within justice contexts

15. Young people's voices and experiences navigating welfare and justice systems

Guest Editors

Dr. Nicola Carr Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Email: NCARR@tcd.ie

Dr. Stefaan Pleysier KU Leuven, Belgium Email: stefaan.pleysier@kuleuven.be

Key Deadlines

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 31 May 2026

Submission Guidelines

The submission portal is open for this Special Issue. Submit your manuscript via:

https://www.editorialmanager.com/cysr/default.aspx

When submitting, select Article Type:

"VSI: JUSTICE AND CHILD PROTECTION"

to indicate that your submission is intended for this Special Issue.

This Special Issue seeks full-length articles highlighting current research and practice.

For any questions, contact the guest editors directly: Nicola Carr — NCARR@tcd.ie Stefaan Pleysier — stefaan.pleysier@kuleuven.be

All submissions must be original and must not be under review elsewhere at the time of submission.

For author guidelines, visit the official Children and Youth Services Review journal page on the Elsevier ScienceDirect website.

About the Journal

Children and Youth Services Review, published by Elsevier, is an international peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore of 4.1 and Impact Factor of 1.7. It supports open access publishing and is dedicated to advancing research on services and policies affecting children, youth, and families — providing a global platform for interdisciplinary scholarship exploring child welfare, youth justice, social services, and the policies and practices that shape outcomes for young people and their families worldwide.

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