Shona Minson

Dr Shona Minson is a Research Associate at the Centre for Criminology, and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. Having worked as a criminal and family barrister at 1 King’s Bench Walk, she has a particular interest in sentencing, the purpose of punishment and the rights of children impacted by their parents’ involvement with the criminal justice system. Her work, funded by the ESRC and the British Academy, has influenced the development of policy and practice on the sentencing of primary carers in the UK and internationally.  Her research has frequently been referenced in parliamentary debates and reports and was the catalyst for the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights to hold an enquiry into the right to family life of children whose mother is imprisoned. 

Shona has worked with judiciary across the UK and in Europe and New Zealand to consider how adult sentencing practice can incorporate the observance of children’s rights. Her book ‘Maternal Sentencing and the Rights of the Child’ was published in December 2019. She has produced films and briefing papers about the impact of custodial sentences on dependent children, and delivers training on the impact of parental imprisonment to criminal justice and legal professionals including judiciary  in the UK and internationally.  She has created programmes for BBC radio and frequently contributes to discussions in the media about the sentencing of women. Her most recent projects included research on the experience of children whose parents were in prison during Covid-10 lockdowns in 2020, and ‘Beyond the Barriers’ which explores access to family justice proceedings for women in prison in England and Wales.

She was the recipient of the Outstanding Early Career Impact Prize by the ESRC , a Vice Chancellor's Award for Public Engagement from the University of Oxford and the Early Career Impact Champion Award from the O2RB consortium (the Social Sciences departments of Reading University, the Open University, Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford).