Dr Sean Creaney is a Criminologist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Law, Criminology and Policing at Edge Hill University.

His areas of knowledge and expertise include Child First Justice, typologies, theories and models of participation and co-production and experiential peer support and mentorship. Sean was previously a Trustee of the National Association for Youth Justice. Sean is a founding Advisory Board member of social justice charity Peer Power, an empathy-led charity focussed on healing trauma and creating individual and system change.

In 2021, Sean was a research consultant on a Youth Justice Board commissioned project that audited and explored the practice of participatory approaches and co-creation across Youth Justice Services. He co-authored the report on how involving children and young people can positively transform youth justice services, which provides guidance on how to utilise creative approaches to facilitate children’s involvement in the design, delivery and evaluation of services. He is currently guest editing (with colleagues Dr Samantha Burns and Dr Anne-Marie Day) a special issue of the Safer Communities journal on the theory and practice of co-production and co-creation in Youth Justice.

Sean is a member of the Youth Justice Board’s Academic Advisory Panel. He also sits as a voluntary member of the Cheshire Youth Justice Services Management Board. His main role is to ensure partners are kept up to date with academic research and advances in the field of youth justice and other associated topics, for example, engagement, adverse childhood experiences and trauma based evidential research. Sean is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Safer Communities journal and was awarded Outstanding Paper in both the 2015 and 2021 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence.

Watch: Sean Creaney and Samantha Burns present ‘Child First participation and co-production in youth justice’