Resource Library
The NWJC champions and promotes best practice for working with women in contact with the criminal justice system.
This library catalogues a wide range of resources that consolidate and demonstrate the collective wisdom and expertise of women’s organisations and criminal justice specialists. It contains briefing papers, reports, policy documents, current research and other useful resources that provide insight, expertise and best practice examples for working with and supporting women and girls.
Resources can be filtered by keywords, themes, organisation and format and search results include links to further information and downloadable content.
Please contact us to recommend any additional resources that should be added to the Resource Library.

Filter Resources
National Audit Office
Improving outcomes for women in the criminal justice system
This report largely focuses on the commitments of the Female Offender Strategy and does not aim to assess all the various individual interventions or initiatives carried out by the Ministry and wider …
Women Beyond Walls
Forgotten by Funders – an exploratory report on the challenges of resourcing work with and for incarcerated women and girls worldwide
This is an exploratory report on the challenges of resourcing work with and for incarcerated women and girls worldwide and draws from the survey responses from 34 organisations working with this group…
Birth Companions
Why are pregnant women in prison
This study explores the reasons that pregnant women spend time in English prisons. This could be due to remand in custody (pre-trial detention), a custodial sentence, or recall during probation superv…
Crest Advisory
Counting the Cost of Maternal Imprisonment
This report focuses on the cost of female imprisonment for two particularly vulnerable groups; mothers who are imprisoned and their children. Maternal imprisonment also has a high cost for the taxpaye…
Advance
London Women’s Diversion Service – The impact of community support on diverting women from the criminal justice system
This report summarises the findings and learnings by Advance and its delivery partners, based on an analysis of the data, case records and women’s lived experiences shared with Advance between N…
Working Chance
Worst-Case Scenario: How racism in the criminal justice system harms women’s chances of finding work
This research explores how gender and racial inequality in the criminal justice system creates poorer employment outcomes for racially minoritised women.
Advance
Women Demand Better Mental Health
The impact of abuse, trauma and the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s mental health Keywords: community based services, lived experience, mental health Locations: Bedfordshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hert…
Women's Resource Centre
The Covid-19 Crisis and the UK Women’s Sector: One Year On
This is a follow-up survey to one published in June 2020. The first survey sought to find out the impact of COVID-19 on women’s organisations – their sustainability, the impact on the serv…
Hibiscus
Black Women’s Experiences of the Criminal Justice System
In February 2021, Hibiscus organised a roundtable discussion with Black women about their lived experiences of the criminal justice and immigration systems in the UK. Six of the women attending were H…
Centre for Women's Justice
Women who kill: how the state criminalises women we might otherwise be burying
The findings of this research make clear that both the law itself and the way in which it is applied in England and Wales create barriers to achieving a just outcome in criminal proceedings against wo…
Motherhood Challenged: Exploring the persisting impact of maternal imprisonment on maternal identity & role
This research investigates the intersection of motherhood and criminal in the UK in order to better understand the experiences of mothers and grandmothers before, during and after prison. The original…
Hibiscus
Cultural Mediation: An inclusive solution to help reduce the cultural and language barriers experienced by survivors of trafficking
Hibiscus has developed a pilot project to identify ways to support survivors of trafficking and gender-based violence and identified that the application of cultural mediation has been used in Europe …