Ms. Alexandra Martins works as a Crime Prevention Officer with the Justice Section, Division for Operations at the UNODC Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. She is the focal point at the UNODC on Justice for Child en and aims to develop and expand UNODC's policy work and programme of technical assistance to developing countries in the area of justice for children and violence against children. She started her career in 1998 as a criminal lawyer in Sao Paulo, Brazil. From 2001 to 2005, she worked as a Programme Officer with the international NGO, Save the Children, in Italy and dealt with a variety of issues related to children’s rights. Since 2005 she has been working with the Division for Operations, at the Headquarters of the UNODC. She initially worked as a Crime Prevention Expert with the Anti-Corruption Unit and the Justice and Integrity Unit, and then subsequently went on to cover the functions of Programme Officer at the Latin American and Caribbean Unit. Alexandra was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and studied Law at the University of Sao Paulo. She holds a postgraduate qualification in Criminal Procedural Law and a Ph.D. in Criminal Law from the University of Florence, Italy. The focus of her Ph.D. thesis was on juvenile justice, particularly on alternatives to detention for children in conflict with the law.