Birgit Larsson

Birgit Larsson is an Associate Professor in Social Work and Sociology. She graduated with a BA from Harvard University in 2004, a MSc from the University of Edinburgh in 2007, and a PhD from the School of Social Work at UEA in 2015.  Prior to UEA, she was a mediator and facilitator and coordinated school and criminal court mediation programs in Brooklyn, NY.  In 2009, she was awarded a Charles Pick Fellowship at UEA to work on a novel, and in 2010, she joined the Social Work department through a university funded studentship to pursue mixed-methods research on police uses of restorative justice for young female offenders in the UK. Since then, she has worked on a number of research projects involving vulnerable people and children/adolescents in the care and/or criminal justice systems.

My research in the Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF), based in the School of Social Work at UEA, focuses on vulnerable young people and emerging adults involved in the care, education and/or criminal justice systems, with the aim of impact on policy, practice and outcomes. I have a particular interest and expertise in researching the characteristics and outcomes of children whom professionals and systems find challenging; this encompasses children who have had childhood trauma / maltreatment and care histories, and adolescents/young adults with victimisation experiences and/or neurodevelopmental difficulties. I'm a mixed-methods researcher who combines big data (national datasets) with in-depth qualitative methods, such as narrative research.