ACJRD Annual Conference 2026

Prevention First: Designing Safer Communities from Systems to Streets

📆 Thursday, June 11th 2026

📍 Ashling Hotel, Dublin 8

🕓 9.30am - 4.30pm (registration opens at 8.45am)

Join us as leading experts share insights on shifting from reactive justice to prevention-first approaches that build safer, more resilient communities.

The 2026 ACJRD Annual Conference will be launched by Senator Lynn Ruane – Author of Moving Towards a Public Health Approach to Violence and Chair of the Canal Communities Public Safety Forum.

This conference will bridge research, policy, and practice, demonstrating how prevention-first strategies can transform communities from the systems that support them to the streets they inhabit.

Other speakers include...

Plenary Speakers

• Dr Katharina Swirak, Senior Lecturer, School of Society, Politics and Ethics, UCC: "From individualised intervention to collective solidarity: re-considering the role of social policy for crime prevention."
• Gráinne Berrill, CEO, National Office for Community Safety: "Building community safety where it starts: Prioritising prevention, collaboration and the community voice."
• Iain Brennan, Professor of Criminology, University of Hull: "The relationship between expulsion exclusion from school and serious violent offending."
• Grainne Egan, Principal Officer, Social Inclusion Unit, Department of Education
• Karyn McCluskey, CEO, Community Justice Scotland and founder of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit: How prevention-first approaches across health, social services, education, and justice reduce offending.
• Graham Farrell, Professor of Crime Science, University of Leeds: Situational crime prevention: designing out crime and nudging behaviours, including the impact of security improvements on crime trends.

Thematic Session 1: The Role of Education in Providing Better Opportunities which Support Crime Reduction

• Aine O'Keeffe, National Manager, Tusla Education and Support Service (TESS)
• Derek Byrnes, Moyross Youth Academy
• Speaker #3: TBC

Thematic Session 2: Community and Social Service Provision

• Clare O'Connor, Researcher: From Punishment to Prevention, Poverty, Inequality and Pathways into the Criminal Justice System.
• Dr Megan Coghlan, Assistant Professor in Criminology at the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University: "Exploring the wider macro context that influences reoffending: Targeting disadvantage and social exclusion."
• David Hoey, Coordinator, Street Pastors Cork: "Being Visible and Accessible in the Night Time Economy."

Thematic Session 3: Designing Out Crime

• Eddie Mullins, CEO of Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI): MQI supervised injection site and its role in reducing anti-social behaviour in that area
• Graham Kavanagh, Crime Prevention Officer, An Garda Síochána: Gap between awareness and application of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) in Ireland.
• Speaker #3: TBC

With more speakers to follow...

The full conference programme will be published shortly.

We expect this conference to be popular and priority is given to ACJRD members. More information on membership and how to apply is

The ACJRD annual conference is aimed at those working in government agencies and in the community, including policymakers, practitioners, academics, civil society and a wide range of disciplines that focus on all those affected by the Criminal Justice System.

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Host or Publisher Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development (ACJRD)