ABSTRACT
Police perceptions of and responses to children in OOHC are significant factors in the criminalisation and subsequent over-representation of care-experienced children in the criminal justice system. First, the chapter explores how our police respondents characterised their involvement with children in OOHC and OOHC service providers and how this influenced their perceptions of them and their inter-agency relationships. Next, we examine how police are used as a behaviour management tool in a residential care setting, straining relationships between police, carers and children. The chapter then investigates our police respondents’ understanding of children who go missing from care. Further, throughout, we consider what appropriate responses might look like, particularly from a trauma-informed perspective.
