Sarah’s research interests focus on identifying and managing risk at the earliest opportunity. Her PhD thesis explored the role of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH) as a means of protecting vulnerable people, with her work highlighting the complex interplay between the theoretical principles of collaborative approaches to safeguarding and implementing them into everyday practices. Her research has enabled her to work with different police forces, statutory agencies and third sector organisations.

Following on from her PhD, Sarah worked as a Research Associate at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), contributing to various research projects focusing upon violence against women and girls, including the UKRI-funded project Domestic Abuse: Harnessing Learning Internationally under COVID-19 (DAHLIA-19).

Most recently, Sarah was Criminology Lecturer at the University of Bradford, where she contributed to co-produced research exploring child sexual exploitation with Barnardo’s Bradford. This research developed into a further project investigating awareness of child exploitation within Roma communities in Bradford, with the research being done with Roma communities, not for them. Sarah successfully secured funding through the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre’s Early Career Researcher Development Fund to develop a digitalised training package around Roma culture and child exploitation, which will be accessible to West Yorkshire Police and local partners.