UniSC researcher Dimitra Lattas has been awarded a prestigious US Fulbright Scholarship to research forensic social work education and training, including identifying factors that lead to young criminal behaviour, and interventions to reduce re-offending.
Amid claims of a youth crime crisis in Australia, lessons from the United States may help to keep young offenders out of the nation's courts and prisons.
Australian Social Work Researcher of the Year Dimitra Lattas, from the University of the Sunshine Coast, has been awarded a prestigious US Fulbright Scholarship to research forensic social work education and training, including identifying factors that lead to young criminal behaviour, and interventions to reduce re-offending.
"As Queensland starts to implement adult time for adult crime, the need to better equip practitioners who work directly with young people in the criminal justice system with specialist education and resources has never been greater," Ms Lattas said.
Unlike Australia, the US has specialist rather than generalist training for social workers who play a clinical role in its legal and criminal justice system, including providing judges and juries with expert evidence to better understand the circumstances that may have led to a child offending.
"There is increasing evidence linking criminal behaviours to traumatic and adverse childhood experiences, and a growing body of evidence that shows incarceration is largely ineffective in deterring serious repeat offenders," she said.
"I will investigate how lessons from the US could inform specialised forensic training for Australia's social workers and contribute to improving our legal and criminal justice processes, particularly in terms of client advocacy, mental health assessments and reducing recidivism.
"Through specialist education, trauma-informed care and evidence-based rehabilitation programs, we can offer practitioners the tools they need to help young people break the cycle of re-offending and reintegrate into society as productive, well-adjusted adults."
The Fulbright Foreign Scholarship program enables graduate students, scholars and young professionals from abroad to study and conduct research in the United States.
The US has one of the world's most diverse range of training programs for forensic social work, including certifications, university programs and internships.
Across eight months this year, Ms Lattas will collaborate with leading US experts in criminal justice social work, explore innovative and advanced practices and visit different training institutes to investigate how their assessments and training programs are structured.
"This knowledge can be brought back to Australia to help develop evidence-based training and resources for social workers. We can learn from experienced practitioners on what new graduates working in the criminal justice system need to know and be taught," she said.
"Reducing juvenile crime is a complex issue that requires more than just tougher penalties or political rhetoric. It requires a fundamental shift in how we understand and address the needs of young offenders.
"To keep youth out of jail, and from reoffending, we need to build more effective systems based on evidence-based strategies and training that recognise the unique developmental, psychological and social factors influencing their behaviour.
"Rather than relying on punitive measures, interventions should also focus on developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed practices that aim to heal, rather than punish."
Ms Lattas was named Social Work Researcher of the Year at the recent international conference of the Australian Association of Social Workers for her award-winning comparison across 10 nations of how forensic social work is taught and applied globally.
