Ryan Peacey and Borja Alvarez Martinez are PhD students at the Department of Criminology, whose research centres on arms trade controls and interactions between transfeminine victims of hate crime and police, respectively. Both Borja and Ryan have demonstrated a consistent high performance in their teaching over years, having taught in units such as Foundations of Criminological Scholarship, Policing and the Police, Criminological Research Methods, and White-Collar, Corporate and Environmental Crime (Borja), and Understanding Punishment (Ryan).

In Ryan’s nomination, a permanent member of the staff described his teaching as ‘approachable and helpful to students’.

Similarly, another member of the staff nominated Borja for the TA of the Year Awards, describing Borja’s commitment to teaching and learning as ‘impressive’.

The recipients of the First-Year TA Award are Laura McCulloch and Nicola Fox. Laura is an Associate Lecturer at Arden University and Research Assistant at the University of Manchester, who joined the pool of Teaching Assistants in the Department of Criminology in September 2023. 

Since then, Laura has been involved in the teaching of units such as Drugs and Society, Criminology and Criminal Justice in Action, and Psychology, Crime and Criminal Justice. In Laura’s nomination, her approach to teaching was described as “very friendly and welcoming to students as they arrived, creating a comfortable learning environment”. 

Nicola Fox is a PhD student at the Department of Criminology, who also joined the Departmental pool of TAs in September and has since been involved in the teaching of modules such as Making Sense of Criminological Data and Modelling Criminological Data. Three members of the staff nominated Nicola for the TA of the Year Awards, claiming that “Nicola is one of the best TAs we have worked with”. 

These Awards celebrate the dedication and enthusiasm of Teaching Assistants in the Department of Criminology. The Department also acknowledges all other TAs for their invaluable contributions to teaching excellence at the University: Diana Bociga, Valeria Caroli, Michelle Corallo, Tom Cunningham, Peter Duncan, Joshua Findlay, Oliver Hulmes, Maria Fernanda Ibarra, Monira Jahan, Ezra Lampesberger, Peggy Lockwood-Lord, Jana Macfarlane Horn, Ana Maria Nicoriciu, Paul O’Neill, Korry Robert, Chris Waugh, and Jinjin Wu. 

The TA of the Year Awards are selected by the Department of Criminology through a Committee comprised of Prof Rosemary Broad (Head of Criminology), Dr Emily Turner (BA Criminology Programme Director), Dr Nico Trajtenberg (Criminology PGT Programmes Director), and Dr David Buil-Gil (TA Coordinator for Criminology). Candidates can be nominated by Course Unit Directors, Lecturers, students, and other Teaching Assistants. The Awards consist of a certificate of accomplishment and a voucher. 
 

On Wednesday, 20 March 2024, The University of Manchester's , in collaboration with the and the UoM Bicentennial Team, organised a landmark event commemorating 30 years of ground-breaking quantitative criminology research at 91ֱ��. 

This event not only celebrated the rich history of quantitative criminological scholarship in 91ֱ�� but also showcased the vibrant future of this field. , Head of Criminology, opened the event, underlining the department's pivotal role in shaping the study of criminology.

The late 20th century saw the formation of the 91ֱ�� Quantitative Criminology Group, a team that revolutionised the study of crime through the innovative use of British Crime Survey data combined with Census information. Their pioneering work laid the foundations for understanding crime distribution and the phenomenon of multiple victimisations within and across communities. 

The 91ֱ�� Quantitative Criminology Group published groundbreaking work between the early 1990s and early 2000s. The event paid homage to the original members of this group, including Professors Ken Pease, Denise Osborn, Andromachi Tseloni, Graham Farrell, and Doctors Tim Hope and Rob Elder, whose groundbreaking research set a new course for criminological studies.

provided a captivating overview of the evolution of quantitative criminology at the University of Manchester from the early 2000s through to the 2020s, highlighting significant advancements in the analysis of gang dynamics, use of drugs and other substances, domestic abuse, and the spatial distribution of crime. 

This period marked an expansion in the scope and sophistication of quantitative methods in criminology, reflecting the University's ongoing commitment to innovation. The event also featured talks from Professors Jon Bannister and Chris Birkbeck, who illustrated developments in quantitative criminology at other universities in Greater 91ֱ��.

In the dawn of the 2020s, a new wave of criminologists launched the Reading Sessions in Quantitative Criminology, further pushing the boundaries of the field. , , and , as three representatives of this new generation, demonstrated the potential of modern quantitative methods to uncover insights into crime and deviance. 

Their work, along with that of other University of Manchester researchers like Dr George Wood, Dr Joanna Hill, and , and PhD students Nicola Fox, Benjamin Palfreeman-Watt and Ezra Lampesberger, who served as chairs, discussants and organisers in the event, illustrates the vibrant academic community fostered in 91ֱ��.

The event featured thought-provoking presentations from each era of Manchester's quantitative criminology scholars, sparking discussions that bridged past, present, and future research directions. 

In a testament to the event's commitment to nurturing the next generation of researchers, the Department of Criminology offered two 'Alan Trickett bursaries' for Early Career Researchers. 

Alan Trickett, who sadly passed away in 2011, was one of the founding members of the 91ֱ�� Quantitative Criminology Group. Pablo Ezquerra from Cardiff University and Giovanni Nicolazzo from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, currently visiting Lancaster University, were the recipients of the bursaries.

This celebration not only reflected on three decades of scholarly achievements but also looked forward to the future, embodying the spirit of innovation and collaboration that has always characterised The University of Manchester.

Renowned Swiss politician Ruth Dreifuss will deliver the inaugural Department of Criminology Annual Lecture at the University of Manchester on Wednesday, 15 November 2023.

Madame Dreifuss, the former President of Switzerland, will discuss her experience of reforming Swiss drug policy in the 1990s. This was in response to a high rate of HIV AIDS among people who inject drugs. 

The health led and people centred approach pioneered by Madame Dreifuss has evolved into a diverse range of harm reduction programmes and decriminalisation strategies. What can the UK, currently experiencing record levels of drug related overdose and death, learn from Switzerland and other reforming countries?

Ruth Dreifuss is one of the twenty-six global leaders of the Geneva based Global Commission on Drugs. She has served as Secretary of the Swiss Labour Union Federation, and chaired the WHO commission and High-Level Panel reporting on public health, innovation, and intellectual property rights. She currently serves as a member of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty.

The event will be moderated by British Academy Global Professor Julia Buxton and will be the first in an annual series of keynote speeches, debates and symposia hosted by the Department of Criminology featuring influential scholars and policymakers in criminology and criminal justice reform. Registration for the event is now open and free to the public.

Find out more information about the event registration .

In the 1990s, the 91ֱ�� Quantitative Criminology Group pioneered research employing the then new British Crime Survey data linked with Census data to advance explanations of the distribution of crime and non-lethal victimisation across communities and highlight the problem of multiple victimisation. 

The event will feature the participation of several former members of this group, including Profs Ken Pease, Denise Osborn, Andromachi Tseloni and Graham Farrell, and Drs Tim Hope and Rob Elder. 

Following this era, researchers furthered the application of advanced quantitative methodologies to investigate areas such as offending, gangs, and the geography of crime. And notably, in the early 2020s, a new generation of quantitative criminologists established the Reading Sessions in Quantitative Criminology. The event will feature presentations from all three groups of quantitative criminologists at 91ֱ��.

This event is organized by the Department of Criminology of The University of Manchester, in collaboration with the Department of Economics and the UoM Bicentennial Team, underscoring its significance within The University of Manchester's history.

The event is free to attend, but previous registration is required. Those interested can register to attend via . The organisation also offers four for Early Career Researchers based in the UK to attend this event.

Join us on Wednesday, 20 March 2024, as we celebrate 30 years of quantitative criminology research in 91ֱ�� and contemplate the future of this ever-evolving discipline.

Welcoming new staff

We are excited to welcome two exceptional new members of staff to the department.

• Dr Landon Kuester, Lecturer in Criminology.
• Dr Jo Hill, Lecturer in Criminology.
   

Welcoming a new Head of Department

The Department of Criminology profoundly thanks Professor Judith Aldridge for her exemplary leadership as Head of Department. Under her direction, the department grew substantially while upholding a warm and collegial environment. Professor Aldridge consistently provided encouragement and support to staff and students, fostering a strong sense of community. We are grateful for her commitment to building an inclusive and thriving department culture.

As we move from strength to strength, we warmly welcome Professor Rose Broad as she takes on this leadership role.
 

Commitment to innovative teaching and scholarship

We'd like to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to Dr Bill Hebenton for his outstanding contributions during his over 30-year tenure at the university. While he has officially retired, Bill maintains an honorary appointment and remains closely tied to the department. Throughout his career, Bill has significantly influenced the field of comparative criminology, focusing primarily on East Asia. His expertise spans contemporary criminal justice topics, such as sexual crime, sentencing, and the enforcement of judicial penalties. He has published over 85 articles, 16 book chapters, 6 books, and numerous teaching materials and reports.

Bill's criminological research has received funding from institutions like the Home Office, the US Department of State, the European Union (through the Falcone Programme), the British Academy, the British Council, and the Nuffield Foundation.

Among his many achievements, Dr Hebenton was a research affiliate and steering committee member for the . He was President of (ACCCJUS). Further, he is a Series Editor for and has been a valued editorial board member for various academic journals.

In recent times, Bill has guided over twelve PhD students, mainly focusing on China and Greater China. His innovative teaching style will be profoundly missed by our students.

We'd also like to acknowledge Dr Will Floodgate, who is stepping down after three commendable years as the BA Criminology Programme Director. Under his leadership, the programme saw considerable growth and consistent excellence.

Looking ahead, we're thrilled that our Criminology staff, Professor Judith Aldridge, and Dr Will Floodgate are pioneering the . This harm-reduction-oriented drugs education initiative is the first of its kind in the UK.

Furthermore, we are excited to launch the "" podcast, steered by Dr Jon Shute and Dr Helen Nichols from the University of Hull, which will feature several of our lecturers.

Our commitment to community outreach remains strong. We're proud of our recent, highly attended employability events that showcased alumni, criminal justice professionals, and police interactions. We look forward to building these networks in the year to come with further employability events.

The first cohort of our new MSc Financial Crime and Compliance in Digital Societies graduated this summer. This innovative distance-learning programme is for senior financial crime compliance, risk and governance professionals and is run in collaboration with the International Compliance Association. It is the first programme of its kind in the world and has attracted students from all over the world, working in financial services, multinational media organisations, regulatory bodies, and more.

We are also pleased to introduce the BA Global Social Challenges, launching this academic year. This innovative transdisciplinary degree, spanning the entire School of Social Sciences, is spearheaded by Dr Jon Davies and Dr Felipe Neis Araujo from our Department. Professor Julia Buxton helped develop this course, and Dr Landon Kuester and Dr Jo Hill will jointly lead one of the core units, “Current Issues of Social Injustice”. We eagerly await the arrival of our inaugural student cohort.

Finally, we'd like to extend our warmest congratulations to all our Criminology graduates this year. We're immensely proud of your achievements and are eagerly anticipating the positive impact you'll make in the world. Best of luck in your future endeavours.

Teaching awards and achievements

Promotions:

• We're delighted to announce the promotion of Rose Broad to the position of Professor.
• Congratulations to Dr David Buil-Gil, Dr Will Floodgate, and Dr Emily Turner, who have all been elevated to the role of Senior Lecturer.

Recognition:

• Congratulations to Dr Katie Benson and Dr Caroline Miles, who both has earned the University of Manchester's Exceptional Performance Award.
• We're proud to spotlight Jessica Williamson, this year's recipient of the ‘TA of the Year Award’, and Oliver Hulmes who has been honoured as the ‘First-Year TA of the Year’.

Our Criminology-specific peer mentoring initiative marked its inaugural year with resounding success. We'd like to recognise the exceptional work of our student coordinators: Elin Penry, Alenzandra Andrei, and Yu Inamura. Their dedication was celebrated with the Student Coordinators of the Year award at the .
 

Student awards and achievements

A special acknowledgment to Aiste Timukaite, who has been honoured with The UK Data Service Dissertation Award. Her exemplary research investigates the factors leading to the under-reporting of violent crime. We also extend our warmest congratulations to Dr Amy Cortvriend, who successfully passed her PhD Viva this year. Pete Duncan was recognised as the PGR Rep of the , and our PGR team also organised and successfully held a workshop for ECRs, titled '.' Great job to everyone involved!
 

Research Awards and Achievements

Throughout this year, our department has achieved remarkable research milestones. Professor Dave Gadd was distinguished as a runner-up at the for his pivotal work on domestic abuse. Dr Lisa Williams unveiled her 'Behind Closed Doors' exhibition, which brilliantly showcases her research on drug stashes, and the exhibition has since embarked on a national tour. Our former colleague, Professor Juan Medina Ariza, collaborated with Dr Reka Solymosi to release a new book titled , published by Routledge. Professors Rose Broad and Dave Gadd have also celebrated the release of their new book, , published by Routledge.

We're proud to be the new home to CRIMRXIV, the premier global open access hub for Criminology, where Professor Judith Aldridge has taken on the role of Director and Dr David Buil-Gil is now serving as Open Criminology Lead.

Congratulations to Dr Jon Davies and Dr Katie Benson who both received awards at the . Jon received the Young Career Award, and Katie was honoured with the Outstanding Book Award for her research monograph, , published by Routledge.
 

Research grants and fellowships

This year, the department has achieved remarkable success, thanks to our collective efforts, we have secured several funding awards and fellowships to support a diversity of research projects.

Dr David Buil-Gil received support from the Open Research Accelerator Fund for ‘CRIMRXIV’ and was a part of the team for the ‘Digital Identity and Life-Course 91ֱ�� (DIALCS)' funded by The Security, Privacy, Identity and Trust Engagement Network Plus (SPRITE+). Dr Nicholas Trajtenberg and his team secured seed funding from the University of Manchester Centre for Digital Trust and Society (UoM CDTS) to research 'demanding justice in the cloud: an analysis of punitive attitudes in social media for traditional and cyber-enabled crime’. Professor Rose Broad and Dr Jon Davies also secured seed funding from UoM CDTS to research modern slavery and digitisation in ‘fast-fashion’ supply networks. Dr Jon Davies was also awarded funds from the Greater 91ֱ�� Combined Authority to evaluate their Western Balkans Serious and Organised Crime Community Coordinator Project.

Dr Meropi Tzanetakis was awarded the prestigious Elise Richter Grant by the Austrian Science Fund. In another significant highlight, Professor Nick Lord became actively involved in the consortium for the , which is focused on accelerating Greater 91ֱ��'s digital economy. This venture is particularly targeting AI and skill development in the tech sector, aiming to support and create new start-ups in the region.

Dr Will Floodgate and Professor Judith Aldridge were awarded funds selected to advance to the next phase of their NIHR Innovation Fund to Reduce Demand for Illicit Substance. Additionally, Professor Nick Lord, Dr Katie Benson, Dr Jon Davies, and Dr Tomas Diviak, and Ezra Lampesberger have been recognised for their ‘91ֱ��-Heidelberg Illicit Finance and Politics Initiative’.

The School of Social Sciences also awarded funds to Dr Lisa Williams, Dr Felipe Neis Araujo, Dr Jo Deakin, Dr Emily Turner, Dr Will Floodgate, and Dr Jon Davies, to enable them to launch an engaging seminar series about race and social justice in the curriculum.

Dr Caroline Miles and Professor Rose Broad were awarded funds from the N8 Policing Research Partnership for to conduct research on the experiences of female runners in collaboration with the Greater 91ֱ�� Police and Merseyside Police. Caroline Miles is also embarking on a BA Small Grant project focused on non-intimate femicide, in collaboration with former PhD student Lizzie Cook.

Moreover, several researchers, including Dr Tomas Diviak, Yuanyuan Zhang, Dr Lisa Williams, Professor Judith Aldridge, and Dr Olga Sanchez de Ribera, were recipients of the University of Manchester School of Social Sciences Small Grants. Their projects span from understanding corruption networks, advocating for evidence-based drug reforms, to interventions focused on intimate partner violence in diverse economies.

These achievements reflect our department's dedication to criminological research and its broader impact. Congratulations to everyone for their outstanding work!

The focus of Aiste Timukaite’s dissertation was on how a victim’s attitudes towards the police influence their perceptions of the costs and benefits associated with reporting violent crimes to the police. Using data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, the dissertation examined how the reporting of violent crime to the police is associated with attitudes towards the police as well as demographic and situational characteristics. 

Through a series of binary logistic regression models, the analysis found no evidence that the decision to report victimisation is influenced by a victim’s trust in police effectiveness. However, factors such as the presence of a weapon and injury to the victim are important predictors of violent crime reporting, as well as sex and age.

Drawing on the results, Aiste proposes the need for further efforts to promote reporting amongst male and younger victims. The dissertation also stresses that while the analysis identified victim and situational characteristics associated with reporting crime to the police, they only accounted for a small fraction of the variation in violent crime reporting. 

Therefore, she argues further research is needed to explore broader contexts that impact victims’ cost-benefit considerations of violent crime reporting. Timukaite’s dissertation was supervised by Dr David Buil-Gil.

Jessica Williamson is a third-year PhD student at the Department of Criminology whose research uses auto-ethnography to study harm reduction and private policing at UK music festivals. Jessica has demonstrated a consistent high performance in her teaching over three years, having taught in units such as Drugs and Society, Explaining Crime and Deviance, and Criminological Research Methods. In her nomination, a permanent member of the staff described Jessica’s teaching as ‘exceptional’.&�Բ�����;

The winner of the First-Year TA Award is Oliver Hulmes. Oliver, who is a PhD student at 91ֱ�� Metropolitan University, joined our TA pool in September 2022, and since then has delivered consistently high-quality teaching in our BA Criminology modules Crime and Society, Criminological Research Methods, and The Criminal Psychopath. In his nomination, a permanent member of the staff described Oliver’s teaching as ‘professional’, ‘attuned to class dynamics’ and ‘engaging’.

These Awards celebrate the commitment and passion of our TAs. We also recognise all our other TAs for their invaluable contribution to the teaching excellence in the Department of Criminology: Borja Alvarez Martinez, Diana Bociga Gelvez, Bianca Caienar, Tom Cunningham, Pete Duncan, Joshua Findlay, Sophie Henderson, Olivia Horsefield, Maria Fernanda Ibarra Gutierrez, Patsy Irizar, Mina Malvandy, Peggy Lockwood-Lord, Ana Maria Nicoriciu, Paul O'Neill, Ryan Peacey and Antonio Ross.

The TA of the Year Awards are elected by the Department of Criminology through an Award Committee comprised by Prof Judith Aldridge (Head of Criminology), Dr Lisa Williams (Deputy Head of Criminology), Dr William Floodgate (BA Criminology Programme Director) and Dr David Buil-Gil (TA Coordinator for Criminology). Candidates can be nominated by Course Unit Directors, Lecturers, students and other Teaching Assistants, or they can self-nominate. The Awards consist of a certificate of accomplishment and a voucher.

Meropi Tzanetakis is Lecturer in Digital Criminology and has been awarded the prestigious Elise Richter Grant by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Meropi was selected from a competitive pool of applicants to undertake a four-year research project on the socio-technical embeddedness of digital drug markets.

The grant, named after the first woman to hold a university teaching position in Austria, is awarded to outstanding young scientists who have demonstrated exceptional research potential. Meropi was selected from a competitive pool of applicants to undertake a four-year research project on the socio-technical embeddedness of digital drug markets.

Meropi, who received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Vienna in Austria, is a Lecturer in Digital Criminology at the University of Manchester. Her work aims to shed light on how the digital revolution has been changing the selling and buying of illicit drugs through increased convenience and encryption.

Prior to joining the UoM in 2022, Meropi help teaching and research positions at the University of Innsbruck (AT), the University of Vienna (AT), the University of Essex (UK), the University of Oslo (NO), the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin (DE), the Freie Universität Berlin (DE) and the Vienna Centre for Societal Security (AT).

Meropi expressed her gratitude in receiving this grant, stating that it will provide her with the resources and support she needs to delve deeper into her research. She believes that this grant will enable her to make significant contributions to the field of illicit online markets.

The Elise Richter Grant is one of the most prestigious awards for young scientists in Austria, and Tzanetakis' achievement reflects the exceptional quality of her research.

View to find out more information about her research.

Scott Jacques, Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University, founded CrimRxiv to promote open access to criminological scholarship worldwide. It remains the only open access repository devoted to criminology and criminal justice, and ensures that anyone can read the publications it makes available, entirely for free.

The University of Manchester will use CrimRxiv to make criminology a more diverse, equitable and inclusive research environment, increasing research transparency and responsibility, in order to improve evidence-based decision-making across government, nonprofit and industry sectors. This aligns with The University of Manchester’s to create an open and responsible research environment and to embrace the principles of open access and open science. The University’s growing support for open research is also reflected in its recent update of the organisational publications policy to embrace rights retention, which in turn means authors’ articles can be made immediately available for all to access.

The new Director of CrimRxiv is , Professor of Criminology and Head of Criminology at UoM, while the founder and former director of CrimRxiv, , is now Associate Director for Sustainability. , Open Criminology Lead at UoM, is Managing Moderator. 

Additionally, UoM’s Governance and Management team for CrimRxiv includes as Lead EDI Officer; , Head of Research Services and the Office for Open Research; , Strategic Lead for Research Data Management; , Co-Chair and Local Network Lead for Open and Reproducible Research; and , Senior Lecturer in Research Methods. 

A team of PhD students will serve as Moderators to process submissions quickly and reliably. They are Diana Bociga, Thomas Cunningham, Allysa Czerwinsky, Maria Fernanda Ibarra Gutierrez, Nathan Khadaroo-McCheyne, Ana Maria Nicoriciu and Benjamin Palfreeman-Watt. CrimRxiv is supported by the University Office for Open Research, and powered by pubpub, an infrastructure designed by .

We were very lucky to have grown as a department,  and this year were pleased to welcome a number of new staff:

• Dr Eon Kim
• Dr Katie Benson 
• Dr Jon Davies
• Dr Nico Trajtenberg
• Dr Olga Sanchez De Ribera
• Dr David Straw
• Dr Fiamma Terenghi

They are all already doing great things in – and for – the department.  

Our social media presence has continued to grow and we now have an Instagram account - follow us . Our Twitter handle is also . You can also find us on Facebook (.

Teaching

The 2021-22 academic year started with a bumper crop of first year students and a return to face-to-face teaching. While there were initial challenges, especially those associated with dual delivery online and on campus, the patience and understanding of the students made sure it was overall a positive experience. For the second semester all teaching was face-to-face - yay! Our colleagues  have commented how good it has been to be back in the classroom with our students again.  Thanks to all students studying criminology at The University of Manchester this year who have embraced their learning, contributed to discussions and remained inquisitive and engaged through another year of tough circumstances. 

It was great to celebrate with 2020 and 2021 students, who, because of the pandemic, were unable to graduate in person at the usual time, with their deferred celebration in March.  It was also good to celebrate our 3rd year graduating students at the criminology ball in early June and graduation in July. Congratulations to all those graduating in person this year - you have done us proud.

We would like to use this opportunity to thank Dr Jon Shute for everything he has done in his role as Director of Teaching and Learning over the last few years. He really has made a difference to our pedagogy and practice and we have all learnt from, and been supported by, him.

This year saw the launch of our new MSc in Financial Crime and the first cohort of students are doing well and a second cohort are starting in September. Each cohort will attend three weekend Masterclasses and the first one in person, held at the University from 17th-19th June 2022 was very successful. Students attended from various parts of the world and there were a range of guest speakers from industry and academia. 

Members of the criminology department (Dr Jon Davies, Dr Emily Turner, Professor Julia Buxton, Dr Jon Shute and Professor Judith Aldridge) have been central to designing a new transdisciplinary degree programme for the School of Social Sciences. The BA Global Social Challenges will be launched in 2023. The central aim of this programme is to equip students with the critical skills that they need to understand the dynamics, organisation, and governance of challenges that result in globally significant harms. Students will learn the skills to approach some of the most pressing contemporary global challenges, including social injustice, conflicts and violence, climate change, and the migration and displacement of people.

Teaching Awards and Achievements

• Just before this academic year began Reka Solymosi was awarded one of the Teachers of the Year in the University of Manchester Distinguished Achievement Awards - watch her talk about her teaching .
• Dr Rose Broad, Dr William Floodgate and Dr Emily Turner have all recently been recognised with 91ֱ��’s Exceptional Performance awards. This is following the success of Dr Jon Shute and Dr Lisa Williams who were recognised last year.
• Dr Marion Vannier was promoted to Senior Lecturer.
• Dr Jon Shute was appointed to the UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowship Peer Review College.
• Dr Emily Turner was awarded highly commended in the Outstanding UG Dissertation (or Long Essay/Research Project) Supervisor and the Outstanding Academic Advisor category for the Teaching, Learning and Student Experience Outstanding Staff Awards 2021/22.  
• Dr Claire Fox has recently been appointed as the Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the School of Social Sciences.
• Jane Horton and Carlos Iglesias were the criminology TA of the Year award recipients. 

PhD Students

A number of our PhD students passed their vivas  - Yongyu Zeng, Siyu Luo, Yutaka Yoshida and Alysha Shivji. Congratulations to all these new Doctors!

We held our second annual PGR criminology symposium #crimsym in early July. A really interesting day and great to hear from the majority of our PGR students about their work.

Dr Caroline Miles (PGR Director for Criminology) took a group of our PhD students to Gladstones Library for a 2 day writing retreat, which they all found incredibly productive and enjoyable.

We are now in our 3rd year of the Criminology Cafe - a joint enterprise for researchers and research students to showcase their work-in-progress. This is seen as a valuable experience by all those who take part.  It is also great for all members of the department to hear what everyone is researching. We were lucky this year to have Dr Louise Brangan from the University of Strathclyde attend as an external speaker.

Research Awards and Achievements

We held our first Research Away Day post-covid, and this was a great opportunity to be together after a long time, to share our research progress and to discuss the research identity of Criminology at 91ֱ��. We will be adding in some more research-related staff activities to complement the Criminology Cafe in the upcoming year.

Prof Emma Barrett continues to lead The Security, Privacy, Identity and Trust Engagement Network Plus (SPRITE+). This is funded by the EPSRC and is a UK-wide network that brings together experts from academia, business, industry, government and civil society to tackle existing and emerging challenges to trust and security in the digital age. 

In May 2021 the University of Manchester launched its new Centre for Digital Trust and Society with significant involvement from Criminology department staff. This was led by Prof Emma Barrett, who has since passed on the Director role to Prof Nick Lord.  There was an anniversary forum held in July 2022 to build connections and share insights. 

Dr Katie Benson continues as Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies and is part of the Taskforce on a Transatlantic Response to Illicit Finance, hosted by the RUSI centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies.

Dr Rose Broad was elected Fellow of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and did important work with them on the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK's Modern Slavery programme delivering her final report in 2022.

Prof Dave Gadd, Dr Caroline Miles and Dr Nicole Renehan helped to shape .

In October 2021 Dr David Buil-Gil was awarded the Early Career Researcher Award by the for his work ‘Small area estimation for criminological research’.&�Բ�����;

In March 2022 Prof Nick Lord and Dr David Buil-Gil (co-authored with Steven Kemp and Fernando Miro-LLinares) won the RISCS Quantification and Cyber Risk prize competition for the paper titled ‘’ published in the journal ‘Criminology and Criminal Justice’.&�Բ�����;

Duncan Craig started his Simon Industrial Fellowship. He was awarded this to build expertise in narrative and biographical research that can be used to understand the nature of change embarked on by male survivors of sexual assault who are serving prison sentences. Duncan is the CEO of the charity Survivors 91ֱ��. In April he was awarded a medal of honour from the University of Manchester.

Dr Jo Deakin continues her advisory work at a European level - she is Ethics Advisor and External Evaluator for Horizon Europe proposals, the European Commission’s research and innovation funding programme.

PGR was appointed Head of the Studies Division of the Undersecretary of Public Safety of Chile. In this role he will consider crime data & evaluate crime prevention programs.

Our Head of Department, Prof Judith Aldridge, alongside Jennifer Fleetwood and Caroline Chatwin won the 2021 British Society of Criminology ‘Women, Crime and Criminal Justice’ Prize for their article  ’.&�Բ�����;

Dr Rose Broad has been elected to the Editorial board of the British Journal of Criminology.

Prof Judith Aldridge continues her work on the UK government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs

Since March 2021 Dr Caroline Miles has been on an Expert Advisory Group for a research project in Australia, ‘’.

Dr Rose Broad is co-leading Project Honeycomb to better understand modern slavery and human trafficking in Greater 91ֱ�� in order to help combat it. The University of Manchester is linking up with leading research and technology development company Trilateral Research to embark on the project, which will take place over the next three years. The project is funded by the Greater 91ֱ�� Combined Authority (GMCA), and is part of the city’s responsibility to take a robust approach to slavery and human trafficking.

Dr David Buil-Gil will be working with colleagues from 5 UK universities on the PrivIoT project funded by PETRA. The project will explore the digital harms of consumer IoT devices at home and smart meters. 

Prof David Gadd and Dr Rose Broad will lead a project on modern slavery within the new ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre that is led by the Universities of York and Leeds. The Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre is the first of its kind to study how vulnerabilities - such as exploitation by county lines drug networks, online child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, modern slavery, mental illness and homelessness - affect policing. Rose and Dave’s project seeks to redefine what realistic outcomes with regard to policing modern slavery might look like and how these could encompass a preventative dimension that reduces demand on police services over the longer term.

Dr Marion Vannier was awarded a coveted Future Leaders Fellowship by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for a four-year project which will research the meaning and value of hope in the case of people who are the least likely to be released from prison during their lifetimes - namely elderly prisoners serving life sentences.

Dr Jo Deakin has recently received ESRC funding for an event as part of the Festival of Social Sciences.

Prof. Judith Aldridge and Dr Rose Broad were awarded ESRC IAA funding for an exciting new project on responding to adult victims of 'cuckooing' in Greater 91ֱ��, in collaboration with GMCA.

Looking to the next academic year

Over the summer we will be working on strengthening the identity of the criminology department by adorning our corridors of Williamson Building, and our common room, with research-themed photos taken by our colleagues over the years. We will also be getting ready to launch sustainable criminology-branded merchandise. In between research and teaching preparation we are all having a good break to ensure we come back refreshed and ready to welcome new and returning students to the new academic year. While we have always had peer mentors the next academic year will see the launch of criminology student specific peer mentors for our first year students which we are excited about.

The Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre, led by the universities of York and Leeds, is the first of its kind to study how vulnerabilities - such as exploitation by county lines drug networks, online child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, modern slavery, mental illness and homelessness - affect policing.

Within the Centre, and will lead a project that seeks to redefine what realistic outcomes with regard to policing modern slavery might look like and how these could encompass a preventative dimension that reduces demand on police services over the longer term.

The project aims to:

• address the question of what kinds of reporting are genuinely useful to modern slavery investigations;
• identify what causes the attrition between the police bringing charges for modern slavery offences and the comparatively small number of convictions;
• and identify the key drivers of modern slavery in cases where offenders have been successfully prosecuted.

Find out more:

A Lecturer from the Department of Criminology

The ONS Research Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate outstanding, innovative research carried out using ONS data that deliver a public benefit to the UK while protecting data confidentiality.

received the ONS Early Career Researcher Award for his PhD research, , which was supervised by Prof Juanjo Medina and Prof Natalie Shlomo.

The aim of this research was to develop a framework of theory, simulation studies and applications of 'small area estimation' to criminology, bridging the gaps in existing methodologies involving research of crime in small geographic areas.

Published across four research papers, this PhD produced reliable small area estimates of survey-recorded crime and perceptions of crime. More specifically, David’s PhD research applied model-based small area estimation techniques to compute estimates of in England and Wales, in 91ֱ��, in Europe, and in London.

The Judging Panel considered that “this project is a prime example of early-career research – novel in approach, technical in application and proactive in transparent publication enabling dissemination on the international scale”.

With her co-editors (and former students) Lona Burger, public engagement officer at Canadian Action for Sexual Health Rights, and Giavana Margo, portfolio analyst at Open Society Foundations, New York, Julia discussed the conceptualisation, methodology, core themes and findings of the publication ‘The Impacts of Global Drug Policy on Women: Shifting the Needle’.

The online talk was attended by UN staff, and there was praise for the book’s integration of perspectives of those with lived experience of illicit drug markets, the Global South, and different forms of knowledge generation. South-West Asia was highlighted as a particular challenge for research on women in illicit drug markets.

The opportunity of the talk enabled connections to be made with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) officials working on projects in this geographic region and information sharing as a follow up to the event.

.

Through the Simon Fellowship the charity’s CEO, Duncan Craig OBE will work alongside Professor Gadd, Dr Emily Turner and Dr Filippo Varase in the University to enable the Outspoken Talking Therapy service - developed by Survivors 91ֱ�� - to build expertise in narrative and biographical research than can be used to understand the nature of change embarked on by male survivors of sexual assault who are serving prison sentences.

The team will upskill Survivors staff and select prisoners in the use of narrative interview methods and help them design an evaluation that embodies a culture of care for survivor participants and actively engages them in its development. They will establish measures of change for Outspoken clients, including those serving long sentences and those anticipating release and extend the Department of Criminology’s flagship Social Responsibility Learning Inside initiative, which has allowed undergraduate students to study alongside prisoners.

Duncan said: “Being part of the Simon Industrial and Professional Fellowship is incredibly exciting for me, particularly as it takes me back to The University of Manchester, where my whole life-changing journey to this very point started - it really does feel like a complete full-circle moment.

“It was here that I fully realised my own experience as a survivor of abuse, realised the need to create Survivors 91ֱ�� to support male survivors of abuse, and realised the need to better understand male survivors of abuse experience in healing, I realised I can write a Masters Dissertation. So the opportunity the fellowship has presented me in returning to the place it all started, to work to further understand how to collect male survivors words in a way that can put male survivors at the front and centre of knowledge of male survivors healing is, well, exactly what the University always promised me as I graduated - lifelong learning.”

Marion Vannier’s new book, , has just been published in the Clarendon Special Series by Oxford University press.

Using the development of life without parole (LWOP) in the Californian death penalty context, this book presents a unique case study of the ‘normalization’ of an overlooked form of punishment, where normalization refers to a punishment’s acceptability to the public, that is, what people think about severity.

The book argues that anti-death-penalty activists in California have contributed to making Life without Parole (LWOP) acceptable. The book identifies three mechanisms that have contributed to making the exceptional cruelty of LWOP seem tolerable: its routinized use, the way it is portrayed and described, and the political reactions to it. To achieve this, this book engages with two perspectives that are under-represented in academic writings: prisoners’ experiences and progressive penal policy reformers who focus on challenging the death penalty. 

This ground-breaking book ultimately illuminates how extreme forms of imprisonment like LWOP can be normalized in particular when set to replace something perceived to be more severe like the death penalty. It also enriches knowledge on the significant links between LWOP and anti-death-penalty activism. The book provides a series of concepts and findings that will have empirical, theoretical and policy purchase for extreme forms of imprisonment more generally.

Normalizing Extreme Imprisonment has been nominated by OUP for the British Society of Criminology Book Prize of 2022.

Understanding the amount of crime that occurs across geographic areas is important to society. Not only is this used to help with the allocation of police resources, but it is also a central theme of political debate with apparent increases in crime serving as an indictment on existing law and order policies.

Academics also make regular use of crime statistics in their work, both seeking to understand why some places and people are more prone to crime, and using variations in crime to help explain other social outcomes. Members of the public can also refer to this information, with historic crime trends now included on many house-buying websites.

Currently, there are two main ways of estimating the amount of crime: directly using police records of incidents that they are aware of; and approximating crime using victimisation surveys like the Crime Survey for England and Wales, where a sample of people are asked to report any victimisations in the past year. Both approaches are deficient.

However, whilst theoretical work has highlighted a number of sources of potential error in these data, we currently lack an empirically robust quantification of the different sources of random and systematic error in each. Nor do we fully understand the potential impact that these errors might have on the estimates from academic work that makes use of this data, although evidence from other fields suggests that this may be substantial.

This project uses cutting edge measurement error methods from the fields of epidemiology, economics, and biostatistics to properly quantify the types of error that are present in police recorded crime and crime survey data.

Drawing on data between 2011 and 2020, this project investigates the extent of systematic bias and random error in these two data sources, and how this error may have evolved over time. This project also uses advanced statistical methods to generate adjusted counts of crime across England and Wales, providing a unique picture of how different crimes vary across space and time. Finally, these findings are used in tandem with ‘off the shelf’ measurement error adjustment techniques to demonstrate the potential influence that measurement error has on the findings of existing research.

Test Signal and the context from which it arises are described as: ‘The North is at the forefront of new writing. Home to some of the most ground-breaking authors writing today, a thriving independent publishing scene and many vibrant grass-roots networks, the North is driving a revolution in new literature. This anthology is a showcase of some of the best new talent in the North. Some of them are well-known established names, others are newcomers; all of them are part of the new northern writing scene.’

You can .

The Bookseller has reported .

Mapping bribery networks is crucial for understanding how corporate corruption unfolds and evolves over time. This makes empirical analysis of bribery networks informative for formulating and testing efficient evidence-based strategies in combatting corruption, which cannot be obtained by more traditional corruption indices or perception-based measures.

This project aims to collect network data derived from publicly available Statements of Facts (SoF) produced as part of Deferred Prosecution Agreements with corporations implicated in bribery. SoFs provide a detailed textual account of the criminal behaviours of the case, including the actors involved, their relations, and information as to when the criminal acts took place and how.

In order to construct networks from the unstandardized SoFs, a framework for extraction and coding of relational information for criminal networks will be used. In all the networks, the nodes represent actors participating in a given case, who are characterized by their affiliation to sectors and to organizations. Ties among the actors represent their communication (calls, e-mails, meetings) or transactions (payments).

Using social network analysis can be used to describe the structure and resilience of each network constructed from this data, its evolution over time, and identify key actors in each case.

The UK needs to begin a national dialogue that goes beyond public awareness to a prolonged period of public engagement that provides interventions to dangerous men, supports those at risk of becoming abusive, especially young men who think they may need help to be better partners and fathers, and that is connected up to social marketing efforts that get men reflecting as undefensively as possible about what abuse-free relationships and gender equality have to offer them.

Politicians, of all colours, need to start being honest with the public that the criminal justice system rarely offers a totally long term solution to domestic abuse and sexual assault. Rather than having a system that encourages denial as offenders try to avoid the consequences of a conviction in the courts, we may need to find ways of encouraging those who have behaved badly to admit what they have done, to apologise to those they have hurt or scared, including their children, and to commit to getting some help. This would be a difficult social change to manage, but in the long term, it might be the only option.

For further details, listen to David's appearance on the show on the .

an independent body which makes recommendations to government on the control of dangerous or otherwise harmful drugs, including classification and scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and its regulations.

Judith's  focuses on drug markets, policy and use, she has pioneered research in the area of ‘virtual drug markets’ and, in connection with her research expertise, Judith has acted in an advisory capacity to a number of agencies involved in the regulation of drug use. Judith’s expertise will help to deliver the ACMD’s vital ongoing work.

Speaking on her new appointment Judith said “I am very pleased to have been appointed to the ACMD. I am fortunate to work with colleagues in criminology at 91ֱ��, where there has for decades been expertise in the drugs area, and am proud of the breadth and depth of drug policy-related research and teaching right across our schools and faculties. I am looking forward to working alongside ACMD members in carrying forward its important work.”

The Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Professor Owen Bowden-Jones, said:

"I am delighted to welcome the new members to the ACMD. Their range of expertise will ensure that the Council continues to provide the best possible evidence-based advice on the harms of drug misuse. I look forward to working with each of them on a range of projects."

The article was a summary of presentations and discussions at the UKELA Air Quality Challenges: Governance and Good Health conference, held in 91ֱ�� on 7 March 2019.

“I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to be published in UKELA's e-newsletter and I feel I have gained a lot from working with Jessica Slater," said Bethan.

“The UKELA Air Quality Governance conference had an interesting mix of views on the subject matter and it was beneficial to me to see these debates occur in real time, exposing the nuances of an area of law I had not studied before.

"It is infinitely more engaging as a student to feel involved in real time legal debate, even if it is simply being present.”

Bethan is part of the first cohort of students taking our innovative new ‘Law in Practice’ course, rolled out for the first time this semester

This optional course is for students who have volunteered on a School approved pro-bono project. The course builds on students' training and experience in various legal processes, developing transferrable skills and preparing students for further study or employment. Students on the ‘Law in Practice’ course are required to conduct self-direct research, enabling them to explore and apply legal rules, doctrines and concepts in ‘the real world’.

“Law in Practice has allowed me to approach the law in a different way; not only thinking critically about the law itself but how it functions in wider society," added Bethan.

"It has also allowed me to dedicate time to voluntary work through the Legal Advice Centre and the 91ֱ�� Free Legal Help Clinic and spend time reflecting on my own personal growth throughout this work.

"The skills I have learnt have allowed me to consider the nuances of legal arguments with an appreciation of wider factors.”

Following her success, Bethan is now planning on attending the UKELA annual conference this Summer, to further her understanding and appreciation for environmental issues and to allow her to apply what she has learnt from the ‘Law in Practice’ to a real-world issue which affects us all.

was the principal investigator on a project established in 2016 to demystify corruption in the UK by asking what we know about bribery in the UK, why the response to bribery varies so significantly, and what can we learn from the Dutch systems that enforce anti-bribery legislation?

Understanding why responses to bribery at home and abroad seem to vary so much was the key to informing the debate surrounding corruption in the UK, therefore informing strategic and operational priorities in the context of the Bribery Act 2010.

Dr Lord highlighted the challenges in determining the level and type of offences under the Act, as there is currently no categorisation of these crimes in the Office for National Statistics’ recorded crime data. In addition, he noted the discontinuation of the Public Sector Corruption Index has also shrouded potential bribery figures in uncertainty.

Official figures indicate an average of 23 reported cases are handled under bribery legislation annually. Dr Lord stated that these figures have plateaued since 1964.

“Where once domestic bribery was addressed more rigorously than international bribery, this may be being steadily reversed, in terms of signalled priorities, resources and institutional responses,” Dr Lord remarked.

“Our research raises concerns that, when compared with the renewed focus on addressing transnational bribery through the Bribery Act 2010, the state response to domestic bribery within the UK lacks institutional focus, central collation of data, resources, and appropriate training.”

The report concluded that every police force should commit to ensuring it has at least one bribery specialist and that the government must ensure UK companies are equipped with the support of trained officials on issues of corruption if they export overseas.

Finally, the report suggests the Ministry of Justice considers adding clearer examples to its guidance for when corporate hospitality is legitimate and when it is not.

“Given the notable issues raised in our research in relation to the absence of centralised and consistent data on bribery or corruption offences in the UK, it is pleasing the see the report reinforces the need for a centralised reporting mechanism,” Dr Lord stated.

Organised by Amicus, a charity representing those facing the death penalty in the US, Peter Pringle and Sunny Jacobs presented their harrowing experiences to students on 6 March 2019.

Pringle was convicted of murdering two police officers in Ireland and was sentenced to be hanged, but days before his execution had his sentence commuted to 40 years without parole. Pringle used this time to study the law from prison, representing himself in the Court of Criminal Appeal and eventually leading to the incredible quashing of his conviction.

Jacobs was the first woman to be incarcerated on Death Row in Florida, convicted of murdering two police officers. Her conviction was overturned nearly 17 years after her arrest, but tragically the decision came too late for her husband who had also been wrongfully convicted of the murder and put to death. Their children had to be put into care as a result of their parents' imprisonment. 

Amicus’ work helps to prevent these terrible cases of miscarriages of justice from reoccurring by raising awareness of abuse of the use of the death penalty, which the charity believes is disproportionately imposed on society’s most vulnerable. The Death Row event was a great opportunity for students to hear the devastating impact of miscarriages of justice from the horse’s mouth and proved popular with those studying Criminology especially.

More information can be found at .

Two of the University of Manchester School of Law’s leading Criminology academics have been handed the prestigious for their contributions to and the development of the field of criminology.

Awarded by the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Criminology Prof David Gadd and Dr Rose Broad were handed the prize for their journal article ‘Troubling recognitions in British responses to modern slavery’, which stemmed from their ESRC-funded research on ‘Perpetrators of modern slavery offences’.

Their pioneering research on modern slavery suggests that modern slavery and immigration law intermingle, as victims are commonly those who have travelled abroad to find work but have become caught up in exploitative relationships or arrangements that are hard to escape as non-citizens, preventing them from accessing workers’ rights or legal services.

Gadd and Broad's research has identified the complex dynamic that vilification of foreign traffickers has exacerbated a stereotype idealising victims as innocent, which has hindered the development of services for victims with complex needs, including those who are reliant on undocumented labour, crime, drugs or prostitution to survive. Indeed, it seems many of those accused of trafficking have been exploited themselves.

As a result of under-regulation in the labour market and tightening immigration law, migrant workers can be liable to turn to working illegally or criminal activity in order to evade poverty and Gadd and Broad argue that ‘biblical terms’ often used by policymakers should be put aside in favour of working to understand why traffickers have hardened into becoming exploiters. Indeed, they indicate that the use of language such as ‘evil’ and ‘vile’ as descriptors of traffickers those being exploited and their captors.

The Crown Prosecution Service, local courts and prisons should be part of the Greater 91ֱ�� devolution deal, says the former head of one of Britain’s largest police forces, who is speaking at The University of Manchester tomorrow (Wednesday).

Sir Peter Fahy, who retired as chief constable of Greater 91ֱ�� Police (GMP) last month, is calling for the criminal justice system to be part of the 'Devo Manc' transfer of powers so that they can be under stronger local oversight. The move would also ensure the efficiencies of working with other agencies can be realised.

During his first public lecture following his departure from GMP, Sir Peter who is an Honorary Professor of Criminal Justice at the University, will also argue that the very low conviction rate for rape and the lack of confidence in victims of sexual abuse to come forward, shows that the way the legal system deals with such cases needs to be fundamentally overhauled.

Ahead of his lecture, Sir Peter said: “I think there should be a much stronger role for a public prosecutor and a revamped local court system built on the need to break the cycle of repeat offending and complex dependency. I am concerned that proposed further cuts to the number of courts in Greater 91ֱ�� will further distance the justice system from local people.” 

At the University, Sir Peter is expected to reflect on his rich and varied experiences of policing and public service and will explore how policing has changed over his 34 years service.

He continued: “Revisions of police powers have only come about as a reaction to failed cases and public scandals and there needs to be a more fundamental independent oversight of the progress of investigations and use of police powers as happens in other jurisdictions.

“The impact of public spending cuts already implemented and yet to come, demands that inefficient processes and systems designed in a time of plenty have to be confronted.

“Whilst I acknowledge that the impact of these cuts has been extremely painful, they will be liberating if it means some deep rooted weaknesses in the current justice system has to be confronted.”

Professors Rebecca and Russell Dobash, both criminologists at The University of Manchester, painstakingly analysed 866 case files (786 men and 80 women) and interviewed 180 men and 20 women convicted of murder and serving a life sentence in prison.

The Murder in Britain 91ֱ��, which is the largest database on homicide to date, sought to gather detailed knowledge of all types of murder perpetrated by and against men, women and children.

The findings, which are published in the Dobash’s new book called When Men Murder Women, (published by Oxford University Press) outline three distinct types of murder.

These are intimate partner murder, sexual murder and the murder of older women – the researchers compared each of these types to those in which men murder other men and uncovered data about the relationships between the victim and the perpetrator.

Professor Rebecca Dobash said: “We’ve found patterns of why certain types of murder happen which has taught us a lot about the callousness of the perpetrators of these crimes but also about how ordinary some of them appear to be.”

The three year study reveals details about the life circumstances, motivations and thinking patterns of men who kill their partners, those involved in sexual murder and those who murder older women. Men who murder women over the age of 65 were found to be the most dangerous male killers of women.

Professor Dobash continued: “We have spent our entire working lives researching various forms of violence, particularly violence against women, with an aim of furthering what is known about the nature of the violence and the contexts in which it occurs.

“We want our research to help society to understand what motivates certain men to kill and why they finally commit the act. I hope our research provides crucial evidence and insights necessary to prevent these horrific crimes and to better assist the victims. Our hope is that it will help to change social beliefs, policies, practices and laws”.

Notes for editors

Professors Rebecca and Russell Dobash are available for interview via the Media Relations Office.

Email medicine.books.uk@oup.com for review copies of Why Men Murder Women, published by Oxford University Press.

Media enquiries to:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 0790
Mob: 07990 550050
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

The report, that draws from a variety of sources of information and research, found cocaine use has spread throughout society since the mid-1990s but that consumption has been on a general downwards trend since 2009.

This use has coincided with the emergence of a market in cheap, low-purity powdered cocaine which operates in parallel with a smaller trade in a more expensive, far higher purity version of the drug.

While representing only a small proportion of society, users come from across the social and economic spectrum, but the report found few consumers show signs of dependency.

‘ is the result of a review initiated by the ACMD due to concerns over increased consumption and a perception that the drug is ‘safe’.

, from The University of Manchester’s, , led the group which compiled the report. He said: “This report shows how quickly the use of powdered cocaine has changed.  We are seeing all elements of society now using the drug in wildly varying levels of purity, with the accompanying health issues spreading across communities.”

The review did not consider the classification of cocaine. The ACMD considers that the potential harms of cocaine are significant and clearly delineate it as a Class A drug.

Other issues highlighted in the report include:

• During 2013/14, an estimated 2.4% of individuals in England and Wales, aged 16-59 years, had used cocaine powder in the past year, according to Home Office statistics. This makes cocaine powder the second most commonly used illegal drug.
• 9.4% of 16 to 59-year-olds have used cocaine in their lifetime according to the 2013/14 Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
• The use of cocaine powder is strongly associated with simultaneous consumption of alcohol and the night-time economy.
• Even infrequent cocaine use can carry the risk of acute health problems such as cardiovascular issues, temporary psychotic symptoms and convulsions – and these can be experienced by first-time users.
• Cocaine (including crack) was involved in, but not necessarily the cause of, 234 of 3,521deaths in England, Scotland and Wales in 2013.
• More than 50 cutting agents have been identified, including some that can cause serious medical harm.
• Patterns of use in the UK are high in comparison to most other European countries.
• Metropolitan Police statistics show around 300 of 1,200 criminal gangs in London are linked to the cocaine trade.
• Cocaine is linked to high-risk sexual behaviour.

The report also makes a series of recommendations relating to the police, government and health professionals.

Professor Les Iversen, chair of the , said: “Consumption of powdered cocaine in the United Kingdom has changed radically over the last two decades. Once characterised as the preserve of wealthy bankers and celebrities, the research highlighted in this report shows a cheaper, low-purity version of the drug has permeated society far more widely.

“Given the clear health risks associated with even infrequent cocaine use, and associated issues such as dependency and crime, this development has posed a huge challenge to health professionals, law enforcement, educators and academics.

“I hope this unique and comprehensive report will assist professionals and policy-makers with an interest in the field and inform future debate on this important issue.”

A £3m grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), which is supplemented by a further £3.686m from policing partners and other universities will enable academics and the police, working as N8 Policing Research Partnership (N8 PRP), to take a major step forward in developing and testing innovative approaches to policing and crime reduction.

Led by the University of Leeds and including The University of Manchester, the programme of activities brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines, Police and Crime Commissioners, police and partners organisations to generate new insights with practical relevance. The five-year project aims to strengthen the evidence base upon which policing policy, practice and learning are developed, with impacts nationally and internationally. It is anticipated that this initiative will make an important contribution to innovation and the utilisation of research in advancing the professionalisation of policing.

Professor Adam Crawford, of the School of Law at the University of Leeds and the Director of the N8 PRP, explained: “We want to transform the relationship between police users and academic researchers so that we co-produce the knowledge that will inform and improve the policing strategies of the future.”

Professor David Gadd, director of the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, said: ‘This is a significant investment in policing and criminological research and we are delighted that the Law School and MBS at 91ֱ�� are able to be participating in it alongside the other N8 partners coordinated by Leeds University’.

The ‘Innovation and the Application of Knowledge for More Effective Policing’ programme will provide mechanisms to bring researchers and practitioners together to design and undertake research that focuses specifically on new and emerging challenges for policing.

Key priorities of the initiative are research co-production, innovation in policing strategies, mobilising human and data resources to understand crime patterns, and citizen engagement to assess the public reception of new technologies, policing practices and change.

Professor Crawford added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to combine the intellectual power and research excellence of eight leading Universities with the resources, capabilities and practical skills of police forces across the north of England. We are delighted to have the support and backing of HEFCE and the contributing Police and Crime Commissioners and senior police command teams. Together, we now have an opportunity to make a real difference to public safety through cutting-edge research and knowledge exchange that will deliver collaborative advantages.”

Sir Alan Langlands, Chair of the N8 Research Partnership, said: “This ground-breaking initiative will extend the existing successes and work of the N8 Research Partnership beyond science and technology into the social sciences. It will enable policing researchers across the N8 universities to collaborate with a broad range of policing stakeholders to deliver excellent research with impact and application in areas with considerable public benefit. I am delighted that this pioneering work is taking place in the north of England; though I am confident that it will have both national and international significance.”

Sir Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater 91ֱ�� Police, one of the forces involved in the project, stated: “We are excited to be part of this pioneering collaboration. We look forward to working with the N8 Research Partnership to shape and deliver a wide-ranging programme of activities that will enable us to become more efficient and effective in our frontline activities, to cut crime and keep people safe.

“It is essential that we develop new ways of dealing with the complexities of policing, protecting vulnerable people and every variety of threat, such as terrorism, cyber-crime and sex offenders. In order to do this it is right that we make full and appropriate use of the expertise that lies in our universities so as to develop the evidence needed to tackle these and any emerging challenges.”

David Sweeney, the Director for Research, Education and Knowledge Exchange at HEFCE added: “The N8 Partnership between policing and higher education can deliver a recognised body of knowledge, evidence and expertise on policing and crime reduction, and has the potential to generate co-operative and innovative solutions to policing issues. HEFCE is delighted to support this multi-university collaboration.”

Notes for editors

The N8 Policing Research Partnership (N8 PRP) is an established collaboration between the N8 universities of Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, 91ֱ��, Newcastle, Sheffield and York.

The N8 PRP was launched at the end of 2013 and has rapidly established itself as a key player in field of police research.

This award builds upon the experiences of a College of Policing Innovation Grant in 2014 and an ongoing ESRC funded knowledge exchange pilot project between the University of Leeds and West Yorkshire Police, which is exploring different models of knowledge exchange and research co-production across a number of core policing issues.

Policing partners that are contributing to the initiative include: Cumbria Constabulary; Lancashire Constabulary; Durham Constabulary; Greater 91ֱ�� Police; Humberside Police; Merseyside Police; Northumbria Police; North Yorkshire Police; South Yorkshire Police; West Yorkshire Police; and Your Homes Newcastle.

The partnership also benefits from the cooperation and support of the College of Policing and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Older users of opioids such as heroin are 27 times more likely to become a victim of homicide than the general population, a University of Manchester study of almost 200,000 users has found.

In the largest study of opioids users ever undertaken, the researchers used records of 198,247 people in England who had been involved in drug treatment or the criminal justice system between 2005 and 2009.  The data recorded 3,974 deaths and their causes during this period. Opioid users were six times more likely to die prematurely than people in the general population. Almost one in ten of these deaths were due to suicide, more than four times the rate in the general population.

The study is the first to record age trends in opioid users’ mortality and the results demonstrate that many health inequalities between users and the general population widen with age. In the oldest 45-64 age-group, homicide was 27 times more common than would be expected in the general population.

The most common cause of death was drug poisoning and the risk of this increased as users got older: from the University’s led the study. “Crucially, opioid users need to hear this new information on overdose, to emphasise that their risk of overdosing increases as they get older.

“This group is also one of the most vulnerable to homicide – at a rate which is staggeringly higher than in the general population. It is apparent that older users of opioids are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, yet most treatment programmes don’t differentiate by age.”

The study also highlighted other major causes of death – circulatory disease, respiratory disease (such as pneumonia) and liver diseases all featured prominently and are much more common among opioid users than in the general population.

The research acknowledges that drug users are often in situations with poor diet and housing and may have other addictions such as smoking or alcohol which are not taken into account in this research. However, by adopting a methodology which doesn’t just include people who have sought treatment, the study incorporates more users than has been possible before.

Dr Millar said: “In the UK, we are seeing the large number of people who became users during the 80s and 90s getting older.  As these users get older, the health gap between them and the wider public increases, so much more work is needed to develop specific programmes which focus on treating and informing this group.”

The study, ‘’, was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Notes for editors

Media enquiries to:
Jamie Brown
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 2758383
Email: jamie.brown@manchester.ac.uk

And just as people got caught up in the riots and acted out of character the study, carried out by The University of Manchester and Liverpool John Moores University, found that the courts themselves got caught up in a similar kind of collective hysteria.

, a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law and Justice from The University of Manchester, was the co-author of the research which has just been published in The British Journal of Criminology. She said: “Whilst the offending may have been impulsive, sentencing should not be.”

The summer riots of 2011 were commonly described as the worst in living memory due to the speed with which they spread over such a wide geographical area. The disorder began after Mark Duggan, was shot dead by the police in Tottenham, north London.

Over three thousand prosecutions were brought in connection with the unrest, which saw streets in parts of the country awash with violence, looting and arson. By 31 August 2012, of the 2,158 convicted, all but 20 had been sentenced with the vast majority of offending having taken place in London, followed by the West Midlands and Greater 91ֱ��.

Dr Carly Lightowlers, a lecturer in Criminal Justice at Liverpool John Moores University, says the courts decided not to follow sentencing guidelines which led to excessive and arbitrary punishments.

She said: “It was not just the courts that over-reacted.  An ‘uplift’ was applied at every stage from arrest, to charge, to remand, to which court dealt with the case.”

Much of the drive came from the Crown Prosecution Service. Suspects were charged with burglary rather than theft which carries a tougher sentence.

Dr Quirk said: “The CPS are prosecutors and not Judge Dredd. From arrest to sentence our research found that a tougher stance was adopted for sentencing riot-related offending and an air of prosecutorial zeal and judicial abandon was commonplace.

“All the agencies were working under great pressure to restore order and the courts made it clear that they saw their role as being to pass enhanced sentences to reinforce notions of punishment and deterrence."

Dr Quirk continued: “The position for sentencing riot-related offending in the future is unclear but the courts should make decisions on an individual level rather than as a blanket decision that all disorder-related offending should fall outside the existing guidelines.”

The study used Ministry of Justice statistics and data collected by the 91ֱ�� Evening News.

Notes for editors

Dr Hannah Quirk is available for interview.

The paper entitled ‘’ by Carly Lightowlers and Hannah Quirk is available on request.

For further information please contact Kath Paddison, Media Relations Officer, The University of Manchester, 0161 275 0790 or kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

People who regularly visit a place of worship are less likely to be involved in low level crime and delinquency, according to new research by a University of Manchester researcher.

The project, led by PhD student Mark Littler, involved the analysis of new survey data and in-depth qualitative interviews with young members of the UK’s major faiths.

He said: “This research implies that the act of visiting a place of worship may trigger a significant reduction in the likelihood of involvement in certain types of criminal and delinquent behaviour.

“In line with existing American research, my results suggest that it is the act of mixing with fellow believers that is important, regardless of whether this is via formal worship, involvement in faith-based social activities or simply through spending time with family and friends who share your faith.

“The important thing is exposure to people who encourage pro-social behaviours, and can provide sanctions for their breach”

The study, which is the first time this type of analysis has been carried out in the UK, is to be published later this year. It was funded by the Bill Hill Charitable Trust.

The survey data comprised responses from 1,214 18 to 34-year-olds and was collected last July.

It gathered information on eight measures of delinquency: littering, skipping school/work, using illegal drugs, fare dodging, shoplifting, music piracy, property damage and violence against the person.

Though most measures showed some relationship, shoplifting, the use of illegal drugs and music piracy evidenced the most significant correlations.

More serious crimes were too rare for the data to be able to show a significant pattern.

He added: “These results suggest a more positive picture of Britain’s religious life than the doom and gloom you might read about it in the newspapers.

“But they are not necessarily a blow to the proponents of atheism: religious practice is just one way of gaining exposure to the pro-social behavioural norms that are at the heart of this relationship; other, more secular, activities may equally serve a similar role.”

Notes for editors

Mark Littler is available for comment

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Two of literature’s most famous detectives had a major influence on the development of the modern crime scene investigation, according to a historian from The University of Manchester.

’s research into the history of “CSI” has revealed that two of its founding fathers – Frenchman Edmond Locard and Austrian Hans Gross – were influenced by British writers Arthur Conan Doyle and R Austen Freeman.

Conan Doyle, a doctor and creator of Sherlock Holmes and Freeman, another doctor whose creation Dr John Evelyn Thorndyke is the prototype for the modern forensic investigator, were evangelists for a professionalised CSI – according to the material analysed by Dr Burney.

The historian was speaking at the 24th International Congress of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, held at The University of Manchester.

Dr Burney is based at the University’s . He said: “It’s surprising but clear that the fictional creations of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Thorndyke were a major influence on the crime scene as we know today.

“The stories showcased new methods of CSI: protecting the crime scene from contamination; preserving and recording the relationships between all objects in the scene, even the most trivial; and submitting minute trace evidence to scientific scrutiny.

“So it’s fair to say that Conan Doyle and Freeman helped investigators to systemise their methods to make the invisible, visible and the inconsequential, consequential.

“It wasn’t until the 1920s that dedicated CSIs began to appear as supervisors of a complex police and scientific operation, accompanied by photographers and policemen to search and protect the scene.

“Freeman and Conan Doyle helped bring this about.

“It’s amazing that both writers were able to conceive of the modern crime scene from their own imaginations – though I would guess they were familiar with the writings of Gross and Locard.”

In an English translation of Hans Gross’s handbook for crime investigators, Dr Burney discovered a passage referring to the forensics kit bag taken by English police to crime scenes as “the Thorndyke,” a clear reference to Freeman’s character.

And in his textbook, Edmond Locard, repeatedly urged all students of police science to read and absorb the lessons of Sherlock Holmes.

Dr Burney added: “During the Victorian era, there were certainly people who investigated the scenes of crimes, but they were was not systematic and scientific in the way they went about their work.

“At murder scenes, the representative of “science” was a medical man – sometimes a pathologist but often just a local practitioner.

“But Sherlock Holmes - and especially Dr Thorndyke- were critical of they way Victorian pathologists might contaminate a scene and helped change practice for good.

According to Dr Burney, ‘The Boscombe Valley mystery’ is one of many examples of how like modern CSI the novels were.

In this story, Holmes laments the destruction of crime scene evidence by “investigators” unaware of the need to adhere to csi protocol saying: “Oh, how simple it would all have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo and wallowed all over it.”

And Dr Thorndyke argued in one of his earliest stories, “Message from the Deep Sea”, that the scene of a murder should be treated like: “the Palace of Sleeping Beauty … Not a grain of dust should be moved, not a soul should be allowed to approach it, until the scientific observer has seen everything in situ and absolutely undisturbed. No tramplings of excited constables, no rummaging by detectives, no scrambling to and fro of bloodhounds.”

The key to solving this particular murder was Thorndyke’s attention to and scientific analysis of sand traces on the dead woman’s pillow.

Dr Burney said: “When we consider the look of a crime scene today, with its protective tents and its ceremonially cloaked guardians, it is not difficult to see it as Thorndyke’s “Palace” come to life.”

Notes for editors

Images are available

Dr Burney is available for comment today (Thursday) and Friday afternoon.

The 24th International Congress of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, is being held at the University of Manchester from July 21 – 28, 2013. The largest ever conference in the subject with more than 1600 attendees, ICHSTM brings together world-renowned academics from over 60 countries to present the latest research and debate current issues in the field.

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Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

The research, published in journal PLOS ONE, found 37 per cent of parents and step-parents who killed their children were suffering from some form of mental illness and 12% had been in contact with mental health services within a year of the offence. Academics from the University's Institute of Brain Behaviour and Mental Health analysed 297 cases of convicted filicide and 45 cases of filicide-suicides in England and Wales occurring between January 1997 and December 2006 from the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness (NCI) - a longitudinal national case series of all homicides in the UK, with particular focus on perpetrators with mental illness. The scope of the NCI’s clinical dataset enabled analysis of filicide to take place in greater detail than other epidemiological studies.  

The over-representation of mental illness in filicide was the key finding of the study. Forty percent of filicide perpetrators had a recorded mental illness, consistent with findings from other smaller studies. But the most common diagnoses were mood disorders and personality disorder; not psychosis. This may contrast with popular perceptions and that of some professionals caring for mentally ill parents about more severe psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia. The proportion of perpetrators with psychosis was still high at 15%, (18% mothers) compared to 6% of homicides in general population studies. This compares to 0.4% overall prevalence in UK, 0.5% for women and 0.3% for men, with highest rates for women and men in people aged 35-44 years.   

Less than half the perpetrators studied with mental illness had previous contact with mental health services; fewer fathers than mothers. Of the total, 20% were treated before the offence, which is lower than a similar Swedish population study (35%). Overall, the 91ֱ�� findings were consistent with those reported from a similar large, population-based sample in Denmark, where most parents committing filicide had no prior psychiatric history. This finding would suggest that the perpetrators were either not experiencing serious mental health problems at the time or, that they had not sought help.  

Other key findings from the research were that 23% of female perpetrators were teenagers at the time of the child victim’s birth. In the general population, the proportion of babies born to a teenage mother was 7%. Overall, fathers were significantly more likely to kill their children than mothers, and were more likely to use violent methods of killing, have previous convictions for violent offences, perpetrate multiple killings, and have a history of substance misuse or dependence. Of the 297 total filicide cases recorded during the 10 year period, the study found 13% of perpetrators took their own life after killing their child;known as filicide-suicide.  

The study also reported that victims were equally likely to be girls as boys. Infants were most likely to be victims rather than school aged or older children. The researchers say the high proportion of infant deaths strengthens calls for early assessment detection of post-partum mental illness - a condition which may be becoming more widespread.  

Professor Kathryn Abel, who led the study, said: "Identifying associations between mental illness and filicide has clear implications for service providers. It shows there needs to be greater awareness for patients who are parents and especially those with severe mood disorders. This is an increasingly important issue because better mental health care means that more people with mental illness are able to become parents. Generating effective child violence/homicide prevention strategies requires broad public health approaches. Targeting sub-populations by providing high quality evidence about risk factors such as mental illness and the need for contact with mental health services may prove more constructive for health service development. Violence prevention may also offer possibilities to recognise and intervene with specific risk factors.  

"Risk-assessment of mothers in joint psychiatric care reported greatest risk of actual harm to child was presented by mothers with mood disorders like depression, rather than schizophrenia. In spite of this, staff consistently perceived and rated mothers with schizophrenia to be the greatest risk to their infants and this was reflected in significantly higher rates of social service supervision on discharge compared to other ill mothers. Our findings indicate that fathers with a history of substance misuse, violence or mood disorder, and mothers who were teenagers at the birth of their child, or with mood disorder may be appropriate targets for intervention. Parents with mental illness should be asked about violent thoughts toward their children, particularly if depressed.”  

The researchers conclude that understanding the risk factors for filicide and the widespread nature of child abuse is far from complete. Future research on filicide should study these acts in the context of child abuse and domestic violence to support the development of effective interventions, they suggest.

Notes for editors

The research was completed by Sandra Flynn, Professor Jenny Shaw from the Centre for Mental Health and Risk, and Professor Kathryn Abel, from the Centre for Women's Mental Health, based in the Institute of Brain Behaviour and Mental Health at The University of Manchester and is published in PLOS Journal.

To view the journal article in PLOS ONE, click here: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058981   The NCI sample used is a 10-year consecutive case series of convicted homicides and homicide-suicides (01/01/97-31/12/06) in England and Wales. Homicides are defined as murder, manslaughter or infanticide under the Homicide Act (1957). Homicide-suicides are defined as cases where the suicide occurred no more than three days after the homicide. Filicides are homicides committed by a parent or adult in-loco parentis, with the victim aged under 18.  

Professors Abel and Shaw are available for interview.

For further information or to request an interview, please contact:  

Alison Barbuti / Aeron Haworth
Media Relations Officer Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences
The University of Manchester 

+44 (0)161 725 8383
/   

Principle investigator , from The University of Manchester,  says the research bolsters calls for Governments to incorporate ‘relationship education’ into the school curriculum.

The ‘REaDAPt’ project, which studied 2,395 young people at programmes in England, France and Spain, has also produced a 180 page toolkit for teachers on tackling the subject.

The toolkit will strengthen efforts to deal with domestic violence among school-age children.

Teenage girls in European countries as diverse as the UK, Spain, Sweden, Malta and Germany  - are two or more times as likely to be victims as older women.

According to the researchers, many young people, especially boys, believe it is acceptable to hit their partner.

However, the European Union funded project found that educational interventions can change attitudes in the space of a few weeks.

Questionnaires to the children in each of the countries revealed the programmes improved their attitudes towards domestic violence – especially in England and Spain.

Professor Gadd said: “We now know that domestic abuse prevention programmes can have a positive impact on the attitudes of young people.

“So the challenge is to encourage governments to incorporate this across the mainstream curriculum and build a workable infrastructure at every secondary school-age year.

“Rather than confining relationship education to special sessions that are tangential to the assessed curriculum, geography or maths, for example, could tackle domestic abuse prevalence in different parts of the world, and the experience of victims could be appropriate for literature or even music classes.

“So this is really a question of finding a way to build capacity, so that we can tackle one of the most serious problems facing young people today.”

A moving film called Through a Child’s Eyes, where a young boy talks about his experience of witnessing his father being violent towards his mother through pictures he has drawn, has been refashioned by the project so that young people can share it via YouTube with their teachers and schools.

Professor Gadd added: “Appraising young people about the risks of domestic abuse in intimate relationships and the nature of domestic abuse is crucial to any strategy to seriously reduce the prevalence of gender -based violence in European countries.

“It is critical that evidence-based materials are provided to schools and teachers and educators. It is also important that teachers and educators are fully supported in providing relationship education and domestic abuse prevention tuition.

“However, a top-down, standardised approach from Government won’t work: teachers need to know what their class is thinking before they teach them.

“And they must be supported in developing the skills and confidence needed to innovate and evaluate what they do.

“This has to involve seeking out young people’s perspectives on the content and delivery of relationship education and domestic abuse prevention tuition, and asking how they would improve it.”

Other key findings of the project include:

• Preventative programmes are most effective at changing attitudes if delivered over a number of weeks.
• Relationship education programmes do not always succeed in encouraging young people to seek help from adults and must therefore identify a range of means by which young people can seek support and advice. 
• Educators must address tensions between promoting gender equality and depicting violence as a gendered phenomenon.
• Educators must also address tensions between encouraging young people to express their own perceptions and the need to challenge sexist stereotypes and victim blaming.

Notes for editors

A graph showing the successful impact of the preventative programmes is available

The REaADPt project conducted an evaluation of three grassroots domestic abuse prevention education programmes in Stoke on Trent, Toulouse and Murcia. Over 2000 young people participated in this evaluation by completing the Attitudes towards Domestic Violence questionnaire (ADV) which was created by Dr Claire Fox and Professor David Gadd – both from the University of Manchester. They were

A new programme using the REaDAPt  Educational Toolkit is a resource that teachers can use to develop their own curricula for relationship education and is free to download from the REaDAPt Project. The toolkit is currently being piloted in a new wave of interventions being delivered in Malta

Professor Gadd is available for interview.

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
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Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk