Welcome to the Youth Forensic Psychology Research Lab in the School of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington under the leadership of Dr. Clare-Ann Fortune. We focus on research related to the psychology of youth offending. This covers a range of topics including risk assessment, strengths based rehabilitation approaches and ethical issues impacting young people’s involvement in the justice system (e.g., young people’s understanding their rights and the legal system).

We undertake research in a range of settings and use both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.  Some projects are lab based, e.g., analysing risk assessment data collected during the course of normal practice, while in other instances we work in the field with external organisations such as Child, Youth and Family and schools interviewing young people. Our research has real world applications such as evaluating the effectiveness of tools used to assess risk of reoffending in youth offenders, or exploring how we might maximise young people’s understanding of their rights when they are arrested by the Police.

We welcome contact from potential collaborators, postgraduate students or student volunteers who would like to get involved in our current or related research projects.

Please explore to learn more about our team and our research.