Vera Duarte. Sociologist, PhD in Sociology (2011) from the University of Minho, with an FCT-funded project on female juvenile delinquency. She has been a teacher since 2001 and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Maia (UMAIA). Her teaching activity began at the University of Minho and the Portuguese Catholic University and, since 2011, she has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Maia (UMAIA, Portugal). She is an integrated researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies, Institute of Social and Political Sciences (CIEG, ISCSP, Portugal) and a collaborating researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA). Since the beginning of her career, she has held academic management positions in the different Higher Education Institutions where she has worked. At the University of Maia she was a member of the Board of the UICCC (2012-2020), a member of the Ethics Committee (2018-2021) and the Scientific Council (2021...), and is currently coordinator of the Master's Degree in Criminology at UMAIA.
Her teaching, scientific production and research work has predominantly been in the areas of the sociology of crime and marginalization, with a focus on juvenile delinquency, female criminality, the juvenile justice system, violence and qualitative methodologies. On these topics, she is the author of several books, book chapters and articles in scientific journals; participates in and organizes (inter)national scientific meetings; coordinates national projects and is part of scientific research teams for other projects; and provides training for professionals in the field of juvenile justice.