What happens when the worlds of research and practice collide? Come find out in our next 'In-Sight' session with Prof. Catherine Comiskey @tcddublin.bsky.social @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social

Working with partners to develop new and responsive youth interventions is central to our research centre @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social @cebys.bsky.social Come help us help youth services to reduce violence and exploitation: hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Interested in how adversity influences pathways into prison? Come help us find out more and have an impact on prevention policy. @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social @youthjusticeagency.bsky.social @endingtheharm.bsky.social hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Just in time for the weekend. Listen to centre director, @violencestudies.bsky.social take part in a new episode from the Criminal Justice Inspectorate re Child Criminal Exploitation discussing recent inspection report criminaljusticeinspectionunpacked.podbean.com @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social

In this book, I refer to this as a deprivation of response; one in a sequence of deprivations in which we see trauma and MH cluster in the criminal justice system. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

🔊Calling youth service practitioners Free online in-sight session exploring online influences, anti immigration sentiment and violence in Ireland. Come chat with Cathal and see how research insights can inform your practice. Link below

I'm so glad it's reached you!! Thank you so much for making the book that much richer with your contribution! I think the #sensory has so much more to say about violence and its afterlives.

New paper in Health & Justice, testing a simple idea: it’s not just ACEs that matters but the balance bet adversity & protection. Using a PCE:ACE ratio I show: ⬇️ Arrest & incarceration ⬇️ School exclusion ⬇️ Substance use ⬇️ Mental health diagnoses Open access: rdcu.be/e3EJ8 #ACEs #PCEs #PublicHealth

Glad to see, following chaos at @esc-eurocrim.bsky.social 2025, a member vote compels a statement on genocide in Gaza: “Q1c (Statement on war in Gaza / Israel–Palestine): Yes 316 / No 188 / Abstain 19 — Yes = 60.42% of completed (62.7% excluding abstentions)”

Oooh. This just arrived. Lots and lots of brilliant contributions (chapter 3 is ok too…). Thanks @kateherrity.bsky.social and team for the invite and support. www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

Just landed on my desk-literally! This is class, from my most excellent PhD student, @journey2aphd.bsky.social : coaching and mentoring in the context of criminal justice @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social

What do we know about preventing the recruitment of young people into drug markets in EU? #CCE #illicitnetworks #rapidreview @reppp-ul.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6IT...

Mental health and experience of violence: sobering insights from @youthendowmentfund.org.uk , including impact of exposure and system-level challenges addressing MH needs. youthendowmentfund.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Some stellar contributions to the annual Irish Probation Journal 2025. A delight to work with colleagues on this review of what it actually means to apply a public health health approach to violence prevention: www.pbni.org.uk/publication/... #publichealth #violence #prevention

How can we better explain why so many in the criminal justice system have trauma backgrounds (& why so many with trauma backgrounds aren’t)? In my new book I theorise the link between adversity, trauma & violent offending, proposing a deprivation framework: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

New paper out in BMJ Public Health ⤵️ We show that extrafamilial violence is an overlooked driver of MH in Northern Ireland. If ACE frameworks don’t include community violence, they’re incomplete. bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/3/2/... #PublicHealth #Trauma #MentalHealth #ACEs #ViolencePrevention

New paper out in BMJ Public Health ⤵️ We show that extrafamilial violence is an overlooked driver of MH in Northern Ireland. If ACE frameworks don’t include community violence, they’re incomplete. bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/3/2/... #PublicHealth #Trauma #MentalHealth #ACEs #ViolencePrevention

What a pleasure to join @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social and @ulsteruni.bsky.social colleagues at the first jointly facilitated roundtable on violence and harm reduction. Thanks to @louisemallinder.bsky.social for chairing and @justice-ni.bsky.social for convening.

Are you interested in understanding and preventing child criminal exploitation (CCE) or testing new community violence prevention interventions? Come on work with us @qubcriminology.bsky.social @slsshub.bsky.social ! hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec... hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Challenging the orthodoxy of ACE dose-response effect among justice involved youth: “Results revealed curvilinear associations for several outcomes, including recidivism and internalizing symptoms, with diminishing effects at higher ACE levels.” link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Bibi Netanyahu went to high school in the Philly burbs. Students & alumni are calling for his photo to be removed from their wall of fame. “I kind of see this guy as a war criminal these days," said one alum. The alumni association & district officials are meeting about the matter this morning.

With tensions already high, watch carefully over the next hours and days as to who is ‘protecting’ those dangerous bonfires from being made safe. #CCE #violence #exploitation

Great idea to colocate justice and child and adolescent mental health services ⬇️

Violence, fast and slow: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Interesting episode with @stevechalke.bsky.social on understanding and preventing youth violence. Worth a listen. music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/ce8...

Still a few weeks to respond to Dept Justice NI consultation on simplifying court ordered disposals for children. If you work with children, please encourage them to respond @slsshub.bsky.social @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social @qubcriminology.bsky.social www.justice-ni.gov.uk/consultation...

School suspensions in Northern Ireland are at their highest level for more than a decade, with almost 5,400 pupils temporarily put out of the classroom in one year.

Thanks so much to EA youth services for facilitating space for some of @qubcriminology.bsky.social for a time out. Reflecting on research, impact and future directions

Along with @unioflimerick.bsky.social colleague Megan Ryan, we examined the role of gender and wellbeing re youth violence. “Our findings and other research seem to suggest that improving well-being may not be a universal answer to violence reduction”. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Review of evidence shows "policies that reduce economic desperation reduce property crime … but have [no effect on] violent crime". An important finding given how much money is spent on trying to reduce violence using employment, skills, etc.

Interested in ACEs, violence, conflict and outcomes? Check out our prevalence study launched today: www.justice-ni.gov.uk/news/landmar...

The equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane due to hit County Clare in the next few hours

Telegraph (Fraser Nelson) "Our immigrant population has almost doubled while our crime rate has halved....we seem to have attracted immigrants who, by and large, are prone to integrate and strengthen the social fabric." archive.ph/ryMuH

A saint and a scholar. Perfect tone for the presidents Christmas message: youtu.be/uMn1uOhnkA8?...

So many questions... youthendowmentfund.org.uk/reports/chil...

One for the diary 📔 Join us for the launch of the first ever study on the Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Northern Ireland. Click the link to register 👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aces-preva...

😮 As a policy decision, this seems very problematic and short sighted. Not least because social sciences, along with other disciplines, help address some of societies most wicked problems. www.science.org/content/arti...

Great day with EU colleagues kicking off the new EUDA programme at Leiden on diverting children from organised crime and exploitation. Well done to REPPP (Limerick) in facilitating the event.

Great day connecting with colleagues from across Ireland-youth crime and prevention. Everything from innovations in peer research, network analysis and gap maps.

A provocative and engaging Reith lecture on the nature and response to violence. Who are the people who engage in it, the difficulty with oversimplifying, and the risks of ‘othering’. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Really concerning, if not altogether surprising data. Traditional masculine norms related to higher endorsement of violence, elevated mental health, reduced help seeking etc etc etc. My research captures need for boys and young men to explore these issues www.independent.ie/irish-news/t...

A privilege to have had the opportunity to work on this new male victims plan for GMCA with We Are Survivors www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/news/greater...

Tense ending but good result IRE V ARG #aviva 🏉🇮🇪

How do young people in the Republic of Ireland make sense of and experience criminal exploitation? Pleasure to work on this with colleagues from Uni Limerick Open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Youth justice structures are difficult to articulate and harder to evaluate. I tried using an Outcome Harvest method. It’s useful. www.justice-ni.gov.uk/publications...

While this misses some important nuance re the spectrum and quality of youth services, it’s a really, really useful start at estimating the impact of, and cost of failing to invest in, youth provision across a range of outcomes incl. crime ifs.org.uk/publications...

New research from the IFS showing the closure of youth centres during the 2010s was shortsighted. For every £1 saved, the costs to affected users, crime victims and public spending in the police and the criminal justice system amount to £2.85 ifs.org.uk/publications...

Episode 3 of ‘our lives in the North’ focuses on legacy of conflict- paramilitaries, violence and criminal exploitation of children. Happy to have spoken with Una Kelly RTE about my research. www.rte.ie/radio/podcas...