Professor Kathryn Hollingsworth (she/her)
School of Law
Professor of Law and Criminal Justice
Full contact details
School of Law
EF00
Bartolomé House
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND
- Profile
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Kathryn joined the University of Sheffield as a Professor of Law and Criminal Justice in October 2024. Prior to that she was a Professor of Law at Newcastle University between 2010-2024 and before that she held academic posts at King's College London, Otago University in New Zealand, and Cardiff University. She has also been a visiting professor at Texas Tech University (USA), Melbourne University (Australia), Otago University (New Zealand) and the University of New South Wales (Australia).
Kathryn's research focuses on children’s rights in the context of criminal justice, and she has a particular interest in children's access to justice in the courts, children's sentencing, and judicial communication. Her co-authored article published in the Modern Law Review with Helen Stalford ('This case is about you and your future': Towards Judgments for Children') was awarded the 2021 SLSA Article Prize and her work has been used to inform judicial guidance and training in England and Wales and overseas. In 2023 she was joint runner up for Newcastle University's impact award (policy and practice) for her work developing new guidance for judges sentencing children in the Crown Court. She was a trustee for Just for Kids Law from 2016-2019 and is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Youth Justice Legal Centre and chair and a director of the Children Rights and Youth Justice CIC.
Kathryn is also a co-convenor of a large multi-sectoral research centre, the Centre for People's Justice, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2025-2030): https://centreforpeoplesjustice.org/
- Qualifications
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- BA (hons) Law, University of Sheffield (1995)
- PhD, University of Cambridge (2008)
- Research interests
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- Youth justice
- Children's rights
- Judging and children
- Sentencing
- Publications
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Books
- Rewriting Children’s Rights Judgments From Academic Vision to New Practice. Hart Publishing.
- Audit, Accountability and Government. Oxford University Press.
Journal articles
- Kinder justice: Communicating legitimacy to children in sentencing courts. Social & Legal Studies, 34(4), 532-557. View this article in WRRO
- Introduction to the special issue on judicial and lawyer well-being and stress. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 31(3), 315-319.
- Reinterpreting “genetic identity” in the regulatory and ethical context of heritable genome editing. New Genetics and Society, 40(4), 406-424. View this article in WRRO
- The thing that made me want to prove myself was the judge: A children’s rights approach to communicating sentences. Magistrate(February/March), 14-16.
- “This case is about you and your future”: towards judgments for children. The Modern Law Review, 83(5), 1030-1058. View this article in WRRO
- Brexit and children in conflict with the law: implications for sentencers. Magistrate, 8-9.
- Brexit and children in conflict with the law: what YOT workers need to know. Association of YOT Managers Bulletin, November.
- Judging Children's Rights and the Benefits Cap: R (SG and others) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Child and Family Law Quarterly, 27(4), 445-466.
- Assuming Responsibility for Incarcerated Children: A Rights Case for Care-based Homes. Current Legal Problems, 67(1), 99-134.
- Securing responsibility, achieving parity? The legal support for children leaving custody. Legal Studies, 33(1), 22-45.
- Theorising Children's Rights in Youth Justice: The Significance of Autonomy and Foundational Rights. The Modern Law Review, 76(6), 1046-1069.
- Youth justice reform in the ‘big society’. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 34(2), 245-259.
- Protecting Rights at the Margins of Youth Justice in England and Wales: Intensive Fostering, Custody and Leaving Custody. Youth Justice, 8(3), 229-244.
- Accommodating Children in Need: R (on the application of M) (FC) v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’ 20 Child and Family Law Quarterly. Child and Family Law Quarterly, 20, 522-540.
- Protecting the rights of children leaving custody: R (on the application of K) v Parole Board and R (on the application of K) v Manchester City Council. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 29(2), 163-175.
- The Rights of Children Leaving Custody: K v Parole Board and K v Manchester City Council’. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 29, 163-175.
- Judicial Approaches to Children’s Rights in Youth Crime. Child and Family Law Quarterly, 19, 1-1.
- R (on the Application of W) v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis; the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames – interpreting child curfews: a question of rights?. Child and Family Law Quarterly, 16, 253-268.
- Speaking Loudly and Carrying a Small Stick? The New Zealand Commissioner for Children’. Otago law review, 10(4), 599-621.
- Creating a children’s champion for Wales? The Care Standards Act 2000 (Part V) and the Children’s Commissioner for Wales Act 2001. The Modern Law Review, 65(1), 58-78.
- Public Finance Reform: The Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000. Public Law, 437-445.
- Environmental monitoring of government — the case for an environmental auditor. Legal Studies, 20(2), 241-263.
- Audit, accountability and independence: the role of the Audit Commission. Legal Studies, 18(1), 78-100.
- Value for Money and Administrative Law. Public Law, 661-681.
- Responsibility and Rights: Children and Their Parents in the Youth Justice System. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 21(2), 190-219.
Book chapters
- Child First in the Criminal Courts, Child First (pp. 203-233). Springer International Publishing
- Future-Proofing Children’s Rights Protections for Child Foreign National Offenders: Blurring the Bright Lines In Scherpe J & Gilmore S (Ed.), Family Matters: Essays in Honour of John Eekelaar
- Protecting Vulnerable Child Defendants in England and Wales: A House of Cards?’ In Lansdell G, Saunders B & Erikson A (Ed.), Neurodisability and the Criminal Justice System: Comparative and Therapeutic Responses Edward Elgar Publishing
- Genera-Relational Justice in the COVID-19 Recovery Period: Children in the Criminal Justice System, PANDEMIC LEGALITIES (pp. 53-64).
- Commentary on R v JTB, REWRITING CHILDREN'S RIGHTS JUDGMENTS: FROM ACADEMIC VISION TO NEW PRACTICE (pp. 421-427).
- European Committee of Social Rights Defence for Children International (DCI) v Belgium, REWRITING CHILDREN'S RIGHTS JUDGMENTS: FROM ACADEMIC VISION TO NEW PRACTICE (pp. 567-577).
- Introducing Children's Rights Judgments, REWRITING CHILDREN'S RIGHTS JUDGMENTS: FROM ACADEMIC VISION TO NEW PRACTICE (pp. 3-+).
- House of Lords R v JTB, REWRITING CHILDREN'S RIGHTS JUDGMENTS: FROM ACADEMIC VISION TO NEW PRACTICE (pp. 428-437).
- Judging Children's Rights: Tendencies, Tensions, Constraints and Opportunities, REWRITING CHILDREN'S RIGHTS JUDGMENTS: FROM ACADEMIC VISION TO NEW PRACTICE (pp. 17-51).
- The utility and futility of international standards for children in conflict with the law The case of England, ROUTLEDGE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF CRIMINOLOGY AND HUMAN RIGHTS (pp. 190-199).
- Towards Children's Rights Judgments, REWRITING CHILDREN'S RIGHTS JUDGMENTS: FROM ACADEMIC VISION TO NEW PRACTICE (pp. 53-85).
Reports
- Children’s Knowledge and Opinion of Sentencing
Preprints
- Rewriting Children’s Rights Judgments From Academic Vision to New Practice. Hart Publishing.
- Research group
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Centre for Criminological Research
Children and the Law
- Teaching interests
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- Children's rights
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Justice
- Teaching activities
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- Children and the Law
- Contemporary Issues in Law and Justice
- Advanced Criminal Law
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Member of the Socio-legal Studies Association
- Member of the British Society of Criminology
- Member of the Society of Legal Scholars
Recognition
- Advisory Board of the Youth Justice Legal Centre
- Chair and Director of the Children's Rights and Youth Justice CIC
- 2021 SLSA Article Prize (winner)