Dr David Junior Gilbert’s visit to Aotearoa in February 2025 was immensely valuable for caregivers and professionals alike.
He is still looking for more NZ participants for his important global research on FASD in justice – scroll down for details of how you can get involved.
During Gilbert's visit we learned about the vulnerabilities of young people with FASD who have found themselves in police cells or in courts, and how they and their whānau can be empowered by learning how to cope in these scenarios. We also learned how under-informed justice systems can exacerbate and even exploit these vulnerabilities.
We spoke to one of several NZ families who have helped Gilbert (as he prefers to be called) with his research – their feedback about the process with him was extremely positive. Afterwards, they received Gilbert’s assessment notes on specific vulnerabilities for their young man, which they found 'invaluable'.
The parents were enthusiastic: “Gilbert is so easy to talk to. He’s gentle, open and caring and has a lovely way of connecting with people. His research is so stimulating and informative – if we’d had this information a few years ago when our son had a brush with the law we would have been able to target our advocacy for him very differently, and back it up with professional-level information.”
The young man said, “I learnt so much from this process – not just about myself but about other people all over the world who have the same stuff going on. For example, how Gilbert explained confabulation – filling in the gaps with what we think people want to hear to get us out of a stressful situation, but not realising how much trouble this could get us into. How he explained this was pure gold for me. I showed it to one of my neurotypical friends and he was like – wow, that makes so much sense.”
If you would like to be part of this research, Gilbert is keen to talk to caregivers and whānau who have had interactions with police, the justice system or corrections. Please contact him directly at [email protected] , take his online survey or check out the flyer on his FASD and Justice research here.
Dr David Junior Gilbert is a University Fellow in the School of Health and Society at Salford University, UK. Gilbert's research is focused on investigating the vulnerabilities of individuals with FASD within the justice system.
He has received several awards within and outside the UK for his research/presentation of his research work. He is a member of the academic network of Her Majesty's Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS), Society for Evidence-Based policing, Neurodivergence in the Criminal Justice Network, and Salford FASD research group.
Gilbert is passionate about increasing the knowledge, understanding and awareness surrounding the vulnerabilities of individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) within criminal justice system (CJS) encounters.
