Hybrid Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): "On Harm and Hope: Carceral Systems, Youth Well-Being, and the Possibilities for Intervention" - Noor Toraif, PhD, MA

On Harm and Hope: Carceral Systems, Youth Well-Being, and the Possibilities for Intervention

Noor Toraif, PhD, MA

Deans' Distinguished Visiting Professorship

Assistant Professor, Social Work
University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice 
 

Youth and emerging adults entangled in the child welfare, juvenile, and criminal legal systems face long-term disruptions to their networks of care, developmental trajectories, and overall well-being.

This talk will provide an overview of Dr. Noor Toraif’s scholarship, which examines the causes and consequences of crossover between the child welfare and criminal legal systems and investigates decarceral and community-based strategies for interrupting youth criminalization– including restorative justice-based diversion, holistic defense interventions, and social and economic support programs. Drawing on mixed methods research, Dr. Toraif will describe the scope and mechanisms of crossover and trace how carceral system contact reshapes young people’s life trajectories, highlighting emerging interventions aimed at reducing system involvement. The talk will focus on one study exploring guaranteed income (GI) as a material strategy for supporting former foster youth during the transition to adulthood. Using longitudinal qualitative data from a diverse cohort of participants, the study identifies how GI enables young people to reconstitute safety nets, redirect resources toward educational and economic mobility, and renegotiate bonds of care disrupted by child welfare involvement. The talk concludes with implications for prevention and intervention strategies that advance the health, stability, and well-being of young people impacted by multiple systems.

Streaming available via Zoom.