Maternal Sentencing and the Rights of the Child

This webinar considers the current state of the law on sentencing mothers, with reference to research on the experiences of children whose mothers are sentenced to imprisonment in England and Wales. Drawing on detailed empirical research with children, caregivers, and Crown Court judiciary, the research presented in this webinar provides insight into the reasons for the differentiated treatment and its implications, and asks why do we send mothers to prison at all?

Presented by Felicity Gerry QC and Dr Shona Minson

Felicity Gerry QC defends mothers as accused persons, including recently appealing sentences for mothers whose children were shockingly taken into prison in the context of financial offending. Dr Shona Minson is currently a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford and author of the book Maternal Sentencing and the Rights of the Child.