Dr Amy Loughery joined the Centre in 2024 from the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, where she was a Research Fellow on a cluster of projects focused on county lines cuckooing victimisation in the North of England, led by Dr Laura Bainbridge. Prior to this, she was a Teaching Assistant in the School for Business and Society at the University of York and a Research Assistant at York Law School. Amy was awarded her PhD, which comprised a multi-methods case study on ‘care’ and ‘control’ in a Scottish Drug Court, from the University of York in 2023.

Amy’s research interests include drug use, markets, and policy; police and judicial interactions with marginalised and drug dependent populations; and criminal justice interventions which occupy the space between ‘care’ and ‘control’. She is particularly interested in generating tangible impact from academic research, having coproduced a series of resources for frontline police officers and practitioners who encounter cuckooing victimisation, and engaging vulnerable participants in research using innovative qualitative methods. She was a founding member of the Cuckooing Research and Prevention Network and is a member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association.

Amy is currently working on several projects at the Centre, including the coproduction of research based CPD training with partnership organisations working with vulnerable groups.