Tell us about yourself

I am a Professor of Criminology at the University of Leicester.

My areas of research expertise lie in:

1. Investigative psychology, serial offending and supporting the detection and prosecution of serial offenders. My research is focused on understanding the crime scene behaviour of serial offenders including techniques that use that information to enhance the detection and prosecution of these offenders (e.g. crime linkage offender and geographical profiling).
2. Prisons, forensic psychiatric hospitals and offender rehabilitation. I also have expertise on prisons and forensic hospitals, including how to create a custodial environment conducive to offender rehabilitation and approaches to supporting the successful reintegration of individuals from secure settings back to the community.

I currently work with the Home Office to support the more effective integration of academic resources into criminal justice policy and practice.

Why did you want to become a Research Affiliate?

In both my University and Home Office capacity, I am keen to build closer working relationships with the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre.

From a Home Office perspective, I am keen to receive updates regarding ongoing research and partnership work that is of relevance to the Home Office and wider Government missions, so that I can feed these to relevant stakeholders within Government and policing. I am also keen to explore how the Home Office and the Centre can forge a closer, mutually beneficial working relationship.

From a University of Leicester perspective, I am keen to build closer links with academics from a range of disciplines that can facilitate future collaborative research projects.

How does your research connect to the Centre’s mission and values?

Prolific offenders and those living within secure settings (e.g., prisons and secure psychiatric settings) are some of the most vulnerable individuals in society, as these individuals often present with complex vulnerabilities across a broad spectrum of domains, including vulnerabilities in terms of physical health, mental health and wellbeing, social care, employment, housing, and substance misuse. As well as these individuals being some of the most vulnerable in society, sadly, their criminal behaviour often targets vulnerable sections of society, too (e.g., the young, the elderly, those with physical health, mental health and social care vulnerabilities). My research in these areas is, therefore, closely aligned to the Centre’s mission and values.