Dr Stephanie Rap is assistant professor at Programme group: Forensic Child and Youth Care. She holds master’s degrees in Pedagogical sciences (2006) and Criminology (2008, Utrecht University). In 2013 she defended her PhD dissertation titled, The participation of juvenile defendants in the youth court: A comparative study of juvenile justice procedures in Europe at Utrecht University. This involved a legal and empirical comparative study on youth justice system in Europe.
Stephanie's research interest lies in the field of the effective participation of children in (judicial) procedures and decision-making. She studies child participation in diverse (judicial and administrative) procedures and settings, such as in youth justice, child care and protection, asylum procedures and in schools. In her research she employs an interdisciplinary approach, combining international children’s rights and child law with knowledge and theory from social sciences. Currently, she conducts a post-doc research on the participation of refugee and migrant children in the Dutch asylum procedure, funded by the Dutch Research Council. In 2020 she received the KNAW Early Career Award. Stephanie has been involved in numerous research projects and she frequently collaborates with (inter)national organisations and NGO’s. She is a member of the editorial board of the Flemish journal Tijdschrift voor Jeugd en Kinderrechten.