Biography

Janine Ewen, affiliated with the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association (GLEPHA), is an emerging public health expert and criminology researcher on a global scale. She is dedicated to assisting marginalised communities at local, national, and international levels.

Janine has been involved with the Law Enforcement and Public Health Network since 2016, contributing by speaking at their conferences and engaging in consultation projects regarding the policing of vulnerable groups in Europe. Her collaborations have included working with international bodies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Law and HIV Network. Additionally, she played a key role in establishing and co-facilitating Scotland's first gender, safety, and harm reduction program under GLEPHA. The aim of her initial efforts was to create standards for needs-based and solution-oriented policing, focusing on comprehending the genuine requirements of underserved communities while adhering to essential principles when interacting with vulnerable populations.

Janine began her life in Northern Ireland, where she became aware of the complexities surrounding the ethno-nationalist conflict. Raised in a community marked by significant divisions and hardships, she continues to reflect on these experiences to motivate efforts for positive change. Her interest in law enforcement originated during her childhood, influenced by personal encounters with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) regarding domestic violence. These experiences highlighted the consequences of inadequate policing and protection, as she experienced being physically restrained by officers and saw her mother receive insufficient support from the police. Later, Janine relocated to rural Aberdeenshire with her mother and brother, spending two years in a women’s refuge. Janine's insights can be explored in greater detail on the British Society of Criminology website and via the Rebel Justice Podcast.

Janine has collaborated in several studies on policing domestic violence, and on the impacts of family violence on one’s life course. Her contributions on research participation have been published in Children and Adolescent’s Experiences of Violence and Abuse at Home, and she was recently published in the Research in Practice Network on exploring the impact of childhood violence through photographs. Furthermore, Janine has engaged in collaboration, presentations, and training for social workers, lawyers, academics, police officers, and substance misuse professionals. Her efforts aim to enhance public health support for youth who have faced trauma by emphasising a ‘child first’ strategy to safeguard these young individuals from harm. Janine is currently working on a new book chapter that focuses on the 'Child First Approach to Knife Crime.'

With her first-hand understanding of unhealed trauma and criminality/exploitation, Janine was featured on the Global Contextual Safeguarding Network – on undertaking experimental creative research methods with young people, involving themes of safety, harm and place. Janine has written about this project as an open access resource for individuals who want to do creative project work with young people. Janine is an advocate for young boys who experience adversity, irrespective of criminality, to create a safer society; she has recently published a review of Dr Jade Levell’s book, Boys, Childhood Domestic Abuse and Gang Involvement: Violence at Home, Violence On-Road, in the first edition of Gender and Justice. Janine has played a key role in assisting Scotland in fulfilling its obligations under the 'Getting It Right For Every Child' (GIRFEC) initiative. Janine conducts guest speaking engagements and training sessions focused on the effects of domestic abuse experienced by children. In 2025, she was invited to present a workshop for the Edinburgh committee addressing violence against women and girls on this topic.

Janine's experiences have prompted Police Scotland to address additional issues, including confidentiality breaches and the safety concerns associated with hiding from offenders. Due to manipulation tactics, her family's location was inadvertently revealed, leading the perpetrator to travel to Scotland in search of them. This incident highlighted for the Domestic Abuse Taskforce team at Police Scotland the ongoing risks posed by relentless perpetrators and underscored the shortcomings in protection measures implemented by the PSNI.

Janine shared these experiences, along with advice for students and practitioners working in the areas of policing, vulnerability and harm reduction for the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre. This material has been used by academics for course teaching in harm reduction, including the University of College London (UCL). She also appreciates the importance of having trauma-informed care by professionals while going through the criminal justice system, as Janine and her brother’s testimony to the family lawyer was pivotal to her mother’s court case against her father. Janine was interviewed about these experiences by the prestigious Law Society of Scotland with further conversations regarding the ways in which the legal field can assist victims of exploitation, as well as approaches to enhance community safety, are necessary. Janine was able to reflect on her local, national and global experiences.

Having been largely raised in the northeast of Scotland, Janine supported and led several community-led projects and local charities that help women, young people, and children – including Grampian Women’s Aid. Janine’s early work focused on building holistic, trauma-informed support for young people experiencing adversity, including from family violence, harm reduction/drug use, and policing. One of her proudest achievements was developing a specialist service for children and young people dealing with the trauma of domestic abuse; she helped to secure funding for support workers, and to create a warm environment where children and young people can express themselves. Janine has also worked in victim support and has collaborated directly with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), as well as specialist police force teams. Many of these positions were focused on safeguarding individuals from the dangers associated with drug-related activities and organised crime.

For many years, Janine has been an advocate for individuals engaged in the underground economy. In the early 2000s, she directly observed the early signs of criminal harm associated with the drug trade in northeastern Scotland. This marked the initial stages of what has since escalated into issues intensified by criminal drug networks and 'County Lines.' She played a key role in promoting proactive harm reduction strategies and peaceful resolutions amidst a backdrop of ideological conflict and increasing criminalisation.

Janine possesses significant hands-on experience in developing public health assessments, collaborating with police and community partners, executing projects alongside local organizations, and organising non-police-attendance events involving public health and NHS workers. These events provide a platform for individuals with criminal histories to discuss offenses perpetrated against them. A major focus of her work has been to deter individuals engaged in the underground economy from depending on or being exploited by criminal networks, particularly in the context of rigorous policing strategies. Janine recently published a template framework of a health needs assessment for GLEPHA, to show academics, practitioners and students how public health work with under-served populations can avoid becoming an enforcement-led agenda by using specific tactics. She has also written open access and general advice on skills in developing public health projects. Has also written about enhanced ethical practices in researching communities impacted by organised crime which was featured in Policing Insight.

Recently, Janine contributed to the development of a project focused on organised crime in Scotland. She played a key role in formulating a project aimed at assessing the international risks associated with organised crime due to the establishment of two new freeports in the Scottish Highlands. This initiative is being backed by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and aims to explore the potential implications of County Lines Networks in this context.

Janine’s main police advisory work has been with Scotland’s Domestic Abuse Taskforce Team, Human Trafficking and Prostitution Unit; she has also liaised with the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce. She has been a visitor to the Scottish Crime Campus and has assisted Police Scotland’s major investigation team. Janine has also worked with the PSNI.

Janine has achieved significant success in her higher education journey, acquiring multiple qualifications in advanced research techniques, public health, criminology, sociology, and leadership and management; she has received top honours in many of these areas. She is eager to maintain an interdisciplinary approach to her academic pursuits.

Janine has been involved in various harm reduction initiatives, including her collaboration with NHS Tayside to establish ‘Healthy T’. This initiative was a specific section at the Scottish festival T in the Park, aimed at promoting well-being, sexual health education, harm and drug use reduction, as well as encouraging the reporting of incidents related to sexual violence and harassment. The Scottish Government provided funding for this project over a four-year period. This endeavour required cooperation among health services, law enforcement, and welfare personnel to ensure that young attendees could have safe and positive experiences amid what can often be a challenging atmosphere.

Janine has gained international experience through her work abroad. In addition to her consulting roles, she was invited to Brazil on three separate occasions, focusing primarily on Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. During her time there, she contributed part-time to a public health initiative aimed at diverting youth from gang-related crime and violence in urban favelas by promoting education and sports. This experience allowed her to gain insights into Rio’s innovative strategies for addressing drug trafficking issues. Janine has been compiling materials based on her field notes, including the creation of visual content for the sensory criminology teaching resource, which serves as an open-access educational resource for students studying criminology and social harms. Furthermore, she received an international grant that enabled her to present at a conference in Rio centred on urban transformation, displaced communities, and social injustices. Janine has also done public health projects in East Africa, where her grandad was born.

Janine has received multiple scholarships focused on public health, harm reduction, and safety, including one from the British Society of Criminology. Additionally, she was granted a distinguished scholarship to participate in the Global Health Post 2015 event in Stockholm, where she engaged in discussions with representatives from The Lancet and the World Health Organization (WHO). Janine has delivered presentations at Queen’s University Belfast and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and she is scheduled to conduct more guest lectures and discussions for students involved in policing, vulnerability and childhood domestic abuse.