KARYN’S ROLE
Karyn McCluskey leads the Community Justice Scotland team and has overall responsibility for raising awareness of the value that community justice brings to individuals and communities. Her aim is to provide leadership in a highly complex sector that covers multiple professional and organisational operating environments. She also ensures that our team supports and challenges our partners by promoting new ways of working that can improve service delivery and create better outcomes for individuals and society.
BACKGROUND
Karyn trained as a nurse, and then in psychology. She spent 21 years working with the police and helped establish the Violence Reduction Unit in 2003 with a Public Health approach to preventing violence. She is a member of the WHO Violence Prevention Alliance and also helped set up the Medics Against Violence charity in Scotland, which speak to school children about violence reduction, injury and keeping safe.
She has also previously developed a plan to tackle violence for the Metropolitan Police and has published work on Armed Robbery teams, Alcohol and Violence Interventions in a clinical setting and Violence Reduction. In addition, Karyn is a Non-Executive Director at Scottish Professional Football League and a board member of Simon Community Scotland and the Centre for Justice Innovation.
LATEST
09 May 2023 — Sunday World’s Crime World podcast with Nicola Tallant
29 Mar 2023 — Authentic Voice Scotland podcast
28 Feb 2023 — The Lived Experience podcast with The Turnaround Project
THE SCOTSMAN (MOST RECENT)
15 May 2023 — My savvy 84-year-old mum was defrauded. And the risks to us all are growing
THE SCOTSMAN ARCHIVE:
1 May 2023 — Norway has ditched the word ‘prison’. Scotland should think about doing the same
24 April 2023 — Scotland’s justice system must change but it may need to happen slowly
07 Mar 2023 — Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments has lesson for modern Scotland about importance of empathy
20 Feb 2023 — BBC documentary The Women Who Changed Modern Scotland reveals inspirational giants of recent history
06 Feb 2023 — Scotland’s drug treatment and testing orders (DTTO) are controversial but they can have a dramatic effect
23 Jan 2023 — Bystanders can become heroes with just a few simple words
09 Jan 2023 — We will reap rewards of keeping young out of prison
26 Dec 2022 — Christmas a time of joy? For some, it’s a time of divorce, drunkenness and violence
12 Dec 2022 — As we remember murdered women, we must all redouble our efforts against gender-based violence
28 Nov 2022 — Criminal law is a most rewarding career but Covid pandemic backlog and other problems are putting people off
14 Nov 2022 — John Lewis Christmas advert should make us think about all those who grow up in care
31 Oct 2022 — We must never rejoice in falling murder figures
17 Oct 2022 — The most serious crimes cause intergenerational trauma that we must learn from
03 Oct 2022 — Thinking about death can help us ask the right questions about how to live a good life
19 Sep 2022 — Margaret Ferrier MP’s community sentence for breaking Covid rules may not be as easy as some would have you believe
05 Sep 2022 — Children’s mental health matters to Scotland’s justice system
22 Aug 2022 — Val McDermid’s challenge to ‘Imagine A Country’ should make us think about how greater equality can reduce Scotland’s crime rate
08 Aug 2022 — We need to talk about what’s wrong with putting people on remand
25 July 2022 — Scotland’s Unsung Heroes like Eddie, Natalie, Linda and Jordan, Risk everything to help others.
11 July 2022 — Prison sentence’s should be reserved for those who would do us most harm
27 June 2022 — Experiences of 400 Scottish children in trouble with the law cry out for compassion
13 June 2022 — The power of the human story can force real change — but care must be taken
30 May 2022 — Restorative Justice: Why Scotland should be less nervous about using this potentially life-changing technique
16 May 2022 — How GPs can play a vital role helping victims of crime and those who end up in the justice system
02 May 2022 — Scotland’s real-life ‘Justice League’ truly are superheroes worth celebrating
18 Apr 2022 — Human libraries, where you can ‘borrow a person’, could help tackle prejudice and other preconceived ideas
04 Apr 2022 — Will Smith slaps Chris Rock: Apologists for violence and bystanders who do nothing are part of the problem
21 Mar 2022 — Social media shaming can last long after acts of repentance and forgiveness
7 Mar 2022 — The lasting impact of murder and culpable homicide
21 Feb 2022 — Viktor Frankl became an eminent psychiatrist. We can all learn from what he said about how to get through the toughest of times
07 Feb 2022 — The kindness of strangers
24 Jan 2022 — The Prodigy’s Firestarter helps understand how self-destructive tendencies can be addictive
10 Jan 2022 — Why childhood play is vital to help people avoid the dangers and pitfalls of life
27 Dec 2021 — From Pandora’s Box, hope was the last thing to go. We must hold onto ours.
13 Dec 2021 — Scotland’s charity volunteers can be life-saving superheroes for the most vulnerable in society
29 Nov 2021 — Children must have both their safety and innocence protected
15 Nov 2021 — Parents can help wayward teenagers by being their ‘mission control’
01 Nov 2021 — The financial cost of putting a mother in prison will shock you. The true cost is even greater.
18 Oct 2021 — Scotland’s justice system needs a new philosophy with a focus on prevention
05 Oct 2021 — Bronzfield Women’s Prison: Death of baby in jail should make us question whether pregnant women have to be locked up
20 Sept 2021 — Scotland’s new sentencing guidelines for under-25s recognise that it takes time to mature
06 Sept 2021 — Why Scotland’s institutions should be ‘trauma-informed’
23 Aug 2021 — Alcohol deaths in Scotland: We can never give up trying to help desperate addicts
09 Aug 2021 — We need more like ‘Fast Eddie’ from the Edinburgh Sheriff Court
12 July 2021 — Scotland’s drug deaths crisis: How treating addicts as well as cancer patients can make a real difference
28 June 2021 — Scotland’s young generation give me the confidence that our future is in safe hands
14 June 2021 — The wonderful dentists who help victims face the world again
31 May 2021 — True law and order is about much more than prisons and tough sentences
04 May 2021 — An NHS worker saved a life in an extraordinary story that I cannot tell
19 Apr 2021 — Community compassion can help us recover from trauma
06 Apr 2021 — Helping those walking the path of recovery
22 Mar 2021 — Scotland’s Victorian prisons need to be replaced, but can we build a better system?
08 Mar 2021 — Forgiveness is key to a better, fairer future
22 Feb 2021 — We can’t go back to the way things were
08 Feb 2021 — Scotland needs to live up to the ‘promise’ to stop locking up children
25 Jan 2021 — COVID lockdown should help us understand just how devastating a punishment loss of liberty really is
MISC ARCHIVE:
Jan 2023 — Community Justice Scotland’s Karyn McCluskey on hidden cost of Covid | HeraldScotland
May 2022 — Scotland’s murder rate is the lowest in 40 years — and this is why, The Telegraph
June 2021 — Prevention is better than a cure, 1919 Magazine