Ethnicity and justice in Scotland: overview of research 2023 to 2024

Introduction

This is an overview of research we are aware of relating to ethnicity and justice in Scotland, as of October 2023. It builds on two previous working papers we published in 2022. The first was a paper which summarised the research projects that Cross Justice Working Group Organisations had planned around justice and ethnicity (July 2022). The other was a paper which summarised academic research relating to ethnicity and justice in Scotland, (Jan 2022), based on responses to a 2021 survey aimed at academics and researchers in Scotland.

In the summer of 2023, we asked all the organisations who sit on the Cross Justice Working Group on Race Data and Evidence (the Working Group) to tell us about any research they had planned which would, or might, include ethnicity, and to provide updates on the research they had told us about in the list collated in 2022.

Here, we outline research carried out by members of the Working Group, as well as research we know about from other justice organisations, academia and the third sector. This gives us a broader picture of what justice and ethnicity research in Scotland looks like. We have included work which is planned or underway as well as completed research. Where research has been published, we have included weblinks.

This is a snapshot in time of published and planned ethnicity and justice research in Scotland, which we know about. It is not fully comprehensive. There will be research which has not been captured. Additionally, organisation’s research plans might change over time, with new work being added. 

Section one outlines and provides links to recently published ethnicity research. This section is split into three sub-sections: firstly, outlining research published by Working Group members; then by other organisations; before finally including links to research where ethnicity is an element but is not central to the research.

Section two includes information on planned and ongoing research, and follows the same structure as section one, of research by Working Group members, then other organisations, and then research where ethnicity might be an element, including projects which have yet to be fully scoped out.