Landmark data linkage study probes hidden impact of justice systems on mothers and their children
A major new research study is investigating what happens to mothers and children when women become involved in both criminal and family justice systems — an area where little large-scale evidence currently exists.
The Child Outcomes for Mothers Facing Trial (COMFT) study, described in a new article published in the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS), aims to identify mothers who appear in both the family and criminal courts and examine how this cross-justice involvement affects children’s care arrangements and family relationships.
Researchers hope the study will help answer important questions about whether children remain in their mother’s care, or are instead placed with fathers, kin, foster carers or adoptive parents.
The research is grounded in growing policy concerns about female offending and family breakdown. Preserving mother-child relationships is seen as key to reducing female offending. While a wealth of qualitative research has captured the impact of short custodial sentences on mother-child relationships, there is far less evidence about the broader population of female offenders —including those serving community sentences —and how criminal justice involvement may influence decisions for children made in family courts.
To address this gap, the COMFT study will link administrative data from multiple sources, including criminal court records, family court records, and demographic information. The data will be accessed through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank at Swansea University, which provides researchers with access to linked data, anonymised data within a highly secure environment.
The research team, based at the Universities of Lancaster, Swansea Lancashire and Oxford, will create a comprehensive anonymised dataset linking female defendants with family court records and caregiving outcomes for children. This will enable researchers to identify patterns of cross-justice involvement and examine how maternal interaction with both justice systems may shape children’s care arrangements.
Because the study involves highly sensitive justice and family data, ethical and data governance considerations are central to the project. The research operates under strict legal frameworks, including the Digital Economy Act 2017, and has received multiple approvals to ensure privacy and data security. The study is also being conducted in partnership with the Data First Team within the Ministry of Justice. Data First is an exemplary programme of work which is unlocking valuable justice data and supporting researchers.
The research is guided by seven core questions focused on understanding the scale and nature of cross-system involvement in England and Wales, the characteristics of mothers and children —including ethnicity —and the legal and caregiving outcomes experienced by children.
In Wales, the availability of additional linked data, including health and social care records, allows researchers to examine children’s living arrangements in greater detail, including how geographically close they remain to their mothers. The team have a long history of working with both Cafcass (England) and Cafcass Cymru, who produces very valuable national data about families in the family justice system.
Vital to the study is the involvement of mothers with lived experience of the justice systems through the COMFT-Together group. Supported by the leading national charity Birth Companions, the group contributes to the design, interpretation, and dissemination of the research. A related podcast series also shares women’s experiences of cross-justice involvement and its impact on children..
The researchers say this involvement helps ensure the study remains grounded in real-world experiences and produces findings are meaningful for those most impacted by justice systems.
The study is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) 2025-2027.
For more information, contact Professor Karen Broadhurst
Email: k.broadhurst@lancaster.ac.uk
Click here to read the full article
Professor Karen Broadhurst OBE, Centre for Child and Family Justice Research, Lancaster University