Concerns have been raised about the readiness of social work graduates for criminal justice practice in many countries, including the United States and Australia. Social workers play an essential role in the criminal justice system, so equipping graduates with the necessary skills, knowledge, and confidence for effective practice is crucial. Using factor analysis and logistic regression, the study investigates the relationship (calibrated vs misaligned) between student self-assessed confidence and their graded competence in a simulated activity. This study examines the alignment and relationship between confidence and competence in American and Australian social work and criminology students (n = 204). Findings reveal a miscalibration between confidence and skill level, with students often over- or underestimating their abilities. The results indicate that field education and work experience support student skill-building but does not necessarily lead to high confidence-competence alignment. This suggests confidence fluctuates as students engage with increasingly complex knowledge and practice. The results reinforce the idea that graduates should not be considered ‘end-products’ but require ongoing workplace learning, supervision, and support. To enhance forensic social work readiness, universities and industry stakeholders must collaborate to integrate experiential learning, structured supervision, and reflective practice into both pre- and post-graduate education. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
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