About
I am a Professor of Criminal Justice at Southampton Law School, and a member of the School's Centre for Justice Studies. I am a social scientist with particular expertise in penal politics, parole and probation. My research draws on insights from criminology, political studies, sociology and law.
I am an experienced empirical researcher, with much of my work underpinned by qualitative research conducted with a range of groups including people affected by imprisonment, criminal justice practitioners, and policymakers. In particular, I have conducted hundreds of ‘elite’ interviews with the most senior criminal justice policy makers and organisational leaders in order to examine the internal dynamics of penal policy making.
I have conducted multiple ESRC funded research projects, including ‘Rehabilitating Probation’ that provided a comprehensive longitudinal study of the re-nationalisation of probation services in England & Wales.
I am a member of the Editorial Boards of The British Journal of Criminology, Punishment & Society, Criminal Law Forum and the Howard Journal of Crime and Justice.
I have authored one monograph: the definitive history of the politics of the discredited indeterminate Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence, published as Dangerous Politics by Oxford University Press. My research has also been published in leading journals including British Journal of Criminology, Punishment & Society, Theoretical Criminologyand Journal of Law and Society.
I have co-authored several special issues and edited collections, including Fundamental Rights and Legal Consequences of Criminal Conviction (Hart, 2019, with Sonja Meijer and Ailbhe O’Loughlin) and Parole Futures (Hart, 2025, with Thomas Guiney and Nicola Carr).
I have an ongoing interest in collaborating with NGOs and other relevant stakeholders in order to seek to examine and improve matters relating to penal policy. Notable examples include the “Locked In?” collaboration with the Prison Reform Trust and my membership of the Working Party for the JUSTICE report ‘A Parole System Fit for Purpose’.
I welcome any inquiries from prospective PhD students.
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