Sally-Ann Ashton works as a Research Scientist at the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center at Prairie View A&M University, USA. Her PhD from the University of Huddersfield explored the social and psychological risk associated with gang membership and desistance. She has continued to research co-offending, youth gang membership, knife crime, and child criminal exploitation in England with a view to early identification of vulnerable adolescents and diversion from the criminal justice system.