Recognising University Students with Criminal Justice Experience A story-led Exploration

Foreword  

Preface  

Acknowledgements  

Chapter 1. Introduction  

Chapter 2. Literature Review  

Chapter 3. Methodological Framework 

Chapter 4. A Selection of Visual Minutes  

Chapter 5. Silent Sentences 

Chapter 6. Beyond the Risk Register 

Chapter 7. From Silence to Support  

Chapter 8. Degrees of Disclosure  

Chapter 9. Conclusion  

Biography

Helena Gosling is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice based at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Her work is driven by a commitment to exploring how higher education providers can engage more meaningfully with the criminal justice system and with those affected by its operation.

Sarah MacLennan is Programme Leader for Creative Writing based at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Her research explores creative writing and storytelling as both a method and catalyst for social change, particularly across education, health, and social justice.

This book will inspire and challenge readers to think more deeply about access and participation in higher education. Considering this through the stories of those students with lived experience of the criminal justice system the authors invite us all to challenge our own assumptions and those of our institutions to ask for more, better or simply different ways of providing education for social justice. Interwoven with powerful imagery, combining beauty and pain into an urgent and important read for anyone interested in education in higher education and the community.

Jenny Fogarty. Associate Professor of Education. Director of Initial Teacher Training, Anglia Ruskin University.

This exciting, innovative and highly valuable book makes a significant contribution to our previously limited understanding of the experiences of students with criminal justice experience in higher education. It powerfully demonstrates how these students’ experiences do not fall neatly into existing categories that universities prioritise and how an overemphasis on risk can obscure the deeper inequalities of opportunities they face. By centring the power of the story, the book compellingly reminds us that people are always more than a single story—a message that is both critical and deeply poignant. The book will be of particular interest to scholars engaged in creative methodologies. It is also essential reading for anyone committed to delivering genuinely equitable higher education provision, including those working in admissions, professional services, and academic roles. The book challenges readers to reflect on the issues raised and offers insights into why this group of students often remain invisible despite the goodwill and efforts of individual university staff. This is an essential text for understanding and dismantling structural barriers, acknowledging this overlooked group of students, and enabling universities to benefit from a wider range of diverse and valuable voices in the classroom.

Dr. Emily Turner, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Manchester.

This important book addresses a neglected area in higher education: while learning in prison has been widely examined, the realities of community education after criminalisation remain largely overlooked. Blending interviews with creative visual methods, it offers a vivid account of how students with convictions navigate often exclusionary systems and uneven commitments to widening participation. Insightful and at times moving, it reveals some of the barriers students encounter and the strategies they develop in response. Drawing on the ideas of students themselves, the authors make a clear case for mentorship, allyship and meaningful structural supports. A compelling read for students, educators and anyone concerned with advancing justice through education.

Dr. Gill Buck, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Chester.

This book offers a timely, powerful insight into long‑standing blind spots in higher education concerning students who have criminal justice experience. The authors’ critical inquiry is grounded in empirical research which platforms storytelling as a means to challenge dominant assumptions. By making visible a largely hidden student population, the book exposes how stigma and carceral logics shape educational journeys well beyond admission, and why regulatory and data‑driven approaches repeatedly fall short. With honesty, care and intellectual rigour, the authors call on the sector to listen, learn and act - moving from chance interpersonal goodwill towards structural reform to make space for safer practices of disclosure through a collective responsibility for empathy. This is an essential contribution that will be welcomed by all those invested in striving for equity and justice-consciousness in higher education.

Dr. Helen Nichols. Reader in Criminology, University of Hull

This forthcoming book by Gosling and MacLennan offers a powerful and timely exploration of students with lived experience of the justice system currently in UK higher education, giving voice to a group too often rendered invisible (“hidden in plain sight”). Using creative and innovative methods (storytelling, photography, visual minutes), the work challenges entrenched assumptions and the status quo within society and HE, opening up new, more compassionate and inclusive ways of understanding personal lived experiences.  This is not only an insight into how HE can better support all students, but a blueprint on how to research socially silenced issues ethically and through person-centred methods. I would encourage researchers from any discipline who are engaging with people to read this book. Your work will be richer for it.

Professor Rachel McLean, Director of Liverpool School of Art and Creative Industries, Liverpool John Moores Universtiy.