Dr Ruth Friskney she/her

Ruth is currently working across two main projects at the University of Strathclyde.

In the Law School she is working on administrative justice in adult disability benefits, funded by the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust. This project seeks to build a new understanding of how claimants of disability benefits understand fair process.

In Social Work and Social Policy she is working on The Health-Justice Nexus: Crime and Justice as Social Determinants of Health in Scotland. This project, funded by the Chief Scientist Office (Scotland), is working to improve the health of Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities by looking at how health outcomes are affected by contact with justice institutions.

Recent previous projects include: ‘Operation Soteria’, a UK Home Office funded project bringing together police and academic researchers to transform police investigations of rape and serious sexual offences; ‘Domestic abuse and child contact: the interface between criminal and civil proceedings’, funded by Scottish Government; ‘CAFADA (Children and families affected by domestic abuse)’, an ESRC funded project looking at innovation in social care; ‘IMPRODOVA: Improving frontline responses to high impact domestic violence’, an EU funded project investigating police and other frontline agency responses to domestic abuse across eight countries; ‘Constructions of children and parents during the reform of family law in Scotland’, a Carnegie funded project looking at discourses around children’s participation during the parliamentary process of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020; ‘Improving Justice in Child Contact’, a five country European funded project seeking to enhance children’s participation in decisions that affect them. She received her PhD in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, investigating how the police apologise in responding to public complaints.