Raquel Matos is an Associate Professor, researcher at the Research Centre for Human Development and Director of the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. She completed her PhD in Psychology in 2007 at the University of Minho, where she presented the thesis " The rare lives of ordinary women: life pathways, meanings of crime and identity construction". In the last decades she has developed research projects on gender, crime and imprisonment and published articles and book chapters on women in prison, as well as on gender and migration control. More recently, she has been researching in the area of juvenile delinquency being particularly interested in exploring the life paths and experiences of young people in the justice system. In this context, she has coordinated several European projects in Portugal, with emphasis on the PROMISE Project ("Promoting Youth Involvement and Social Engagement - Opportunities and challenges for 'conflicted' young people across Europe"), funded by Horizon 2020.
Throughout her career, she has networked with academics from other scientific areas, in particular sociology, anthropology and law, and with academics and professionals from other countries. She has been a visiting researcher at the Universities of Bath (2004;2005), Toronto (2012) and Oxford (2013).