Correctional Services Research Group

Our mission

Our mission is to promote ethically sustainable research that supports the social and digital inclusion of vulnerable groups and desistance from crime.

We are building a more effective and humane correctional services. At the core of our work is strengthening the social inclusion of vulnerable groups, such as incarcerated people and other individuals with a history of crime, and developing the competence of professionals who support them across sectors. Our aim is to profile ourselves nationally and internationally as key experts in the correctional and social services fields and to promote societal impact through the research projects we carry out, our publications and our project applications.

Our research activities are built around five timely and socially significant research themes. Our themes address the digitalizing correctional services, desistance from crime, multiagency social work, dynamic security, and social-ethical issues. Based on these themes, we continuously develop new research and development projects that respond to identified needs, blind spots and changing phenomena in working life. The projects of the Correctional Services Research Group are part of our sustainable and versatile social and health sector research programme.

Laurea has over 20 years of strong experience in education, research, and development in the correctional services and social services fields. We are the only University of Applied Sciences in Finland that offers both Bachelor’s and Master’s level Degree Programmes in the Correctional Services. Our research team is responsible for the Master’s Degree Programmes in “Development and Management in Correctional Services” and “Client-oriented Development in Social Services” (in Finnish only).