Dr Susan Baidawi is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Social Work. Her research studies lies at the nexus of the child welfare and criminal justice fields, areas in which she holds significant research experience. She has conducted and authored outputs for numerous studies, reviews and evaluations in the child protection, out-of-home care, leaving care and youth justice fields. 

Dr Baidawi is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellowship (2019-21) for the project "Dual child protection and youth justice clients: expanding the evidence base".  This project investigates the phenomenon of children who cross over from statutory child protection systems into youth justice systems, and is being conducted in partnership with the Children's Court of Victoria. The analysis will draw data from Children’s Court files and international policy, and expects to generate new knowledge regarding the characteristics and trajectories of crossover children, and to improve understandings of how this group differs from children only involved with child protection or youth justice systems. The findings will inform novel and effective approaches to preventing and responding to the drift of children from child protection into youth justice systems which will improve social and economic outcomes for young people and the broader community.