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.
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Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
Prison Service Journal (No 277) March 2025
This special edition of Prison Service Journal focusses on the issues of women, criminalisation and the need for differential approaches that recognise the part that gender plays in women’s path…
National Women's Justice Coalition (NWJC)
Breaking Out of the Justice Loop: Creating a criminal justice system that works for women
Breaking out of the Justice Loop argues that the criminal justice system, designed for men, has consistently failed women for years and that women’s centres and a public health approach must be …
University of Birmingham
Exploring Needs Profiles in Criminal Justice-Involved Women
This report examines the WRNA (Women’s Risk and Needs Assessment) validation project, investigating the needs and strengths of women who attend women’s centres across the UK. The study exa…
University of Birmingham
Examining the relationship between severity and complexity of needs among women involved in the Criminal Justice System
The research looked at the needs, adverse life events, vulnerabilities and strengths for women as identified through the Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA) tool, and the relationships between …
Hibiscus
Unsafe, Insecure: barriers to safe housing for Black and minoritised migrant women
Over half of the women Hibiscus supported in the community in the last year reported housing insecurity, with those affected nearly twice as likely to suffer from mental health issues. This report and…
National Women's Justice Coalition (NWJC)
Understanding the disadvantage & inequality experienced by women in contact with the CJS
Women in contact with the criminal justice system often experience different challenges rooted in structural and systemic inequalities at the same time, and the criminalisation of women is often under…
Staffordshire University and Centre for Justice Innovation
Identifying alcohol and drug related harms and appropriate treatment pathways for women
In 2022 and 2023 Staffordshire University and Expert Citizens CIC collaboratively collected data with women with lived experience of drug and alcohol services in the West Midlands through interviews a…
NHSE and HMPPS
The National Women’s Prisons Health and Social Care Review
Women in prison have disproportionately higher levels of health and social care needs than their male counterparts in prison and women in the general population. High numbers of women in prison experi…
Centre for Justice Innovation
‘A safe place & a safe time’ – Providing effective advocacy to Black and Minoritised victim-survivors of domestic abuse and harmful practices in contact with the CJS
Victim-survivors of domestic abuse and harmful practices who are also in contact with the criminal justice system often either choose to withdraw their case or see their cases dropped by criminal just…
Advance
No Relief: the impact of Covid 19 on women’s mental health
Advance conducted research with the women using their services during the first year of the pandemic, publishing findings and recommendations in their 2021 report, Women Demand Better Mental Health: t…
Fulfilling Lives Lambeth Southwark Lewisham
Understanding Models of Support for People Facing Multiple Disadvantage: A Literature Review
This literature review brings together broad, multidisciplinary evidence about access to services, transitions within services, and understanding about how the system behaves for people facing multipl…
Khidmat Centres
Sisters in Desistance Community-based solutions for Muslim women post-prison
This report examines the social stigmas and taboos faced by incarcerated women and scopes the challenges experienced by Muslim women on their release back to the community. Piloted at the Khidmat Cent…