Criminology research

We are internationally renowned for our critical and interdisciplinary research on criminological theory, policy and practice. The pursuit of innovative research lies at the heart of our activities, feeding into our teaching programmes and informing our interactions with policy-makers, public bodies, the legal profession and criminal justice practitioners, NGOs, campaign and pressure groups, and the wider public. Intersectional approaches to the study of criminal justice, law enforcement, and intersectionality (race, class, gender and sexuality) are key features of our research. We are committed to critically examining the production of both crime and criminal justice, alongside law enforcement policies and practices, taking into account their political and social contexts, with a view to supporting understanding of and engagement in social change, and promoting social justice.

We also host a number of high-profile research centres and participate in Birkbeck-wide centres, institutes and networks, which support and promote the cross-fertilisation of scholarship across the College.

We are surrounded by other University of London colleges, world-class resources such as the British Library, and one of the greatest concentrations of legal research and practice – the Inns of Court and the Royal Courts of Justice.

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Study for an MPhil/PhD

Congratulations: outstanding REF2021 result

REF2021 shows a doubling in the percentage of outputs which were judged to be world-leading since REF2014.

Research projects

Problem solving in youth courts

Developing practices to respond better to a changing youth court.

The ten country prison project

'Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in ten countries’ is an international research and policy project being conducted under the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research’s World Prison Research Programme.

Digital Forensics and Social Media Evidence

A review of policy and procedure to examine how social media evidence has been used in the investigation and prosecution of serious sexual and violent offences.

The history of women in prisons

Get an insight into women’s prisons in England from the late 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century.

Our research clusters

Critical Legal and Criminological Theory research cluster

We focus on approaching law and criminology through critical theory.

Human Rights research cluster

We focus on human rights, international law and European law.

Law and humanities research cluster

We work together to use the humanities to understand the law, its institutions and practices.

Policy, practice and activism research cluster

Our group explores social policy and practice.

Race, gender and culture research cluster

We explore the place of sex, gender and race in the law, especially inequalities and failures of justice.

Regulation, risk and surveillance research cluster

Together, we focus on governance and regulation in finance, criminal justice, schools and the creative industries.

OUR RESEARCH CENTRES AND INSTITUTES

Centre for Law and the Humanities

We consider the law in relation to aesthetics, architecture and space, film, history, literature, psychoanalysis and theory.

Centre for Research on Race and Law

We bring together research, at Birkbeck and elsewhere, on the relationship between race and the law.

Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research (ICPR)

We contribute to criminal justice policy, academic knowledge and public debate about crime and criminal justice.

OTHER RELEVANT RESEARCH CENTRES AND NETWORKS

Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality

We provide a forum for innovative, interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange in gender and sexuality studies.

Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities

We engage with important public issues through lectures, seminars and conferences and promote interdisciplinary research and collaboration.

Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image

We bring together researchers across Birkbeck who are interested in film and the moving image.

Birkbeck Institute for Social Research

We are the focal point for social research at Birkbeck and a hub for the dissemination and discussion of social research in London and beyond.

Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies

We promote interdisciplinary research in the law and economics, finance and public policy.

Guilt Working Group

The relation between modern guilts and other forms and discourses of guilt is rich and strange. We aim to foster debate around this topic.

Home and Exile Working Group

We aim to think about migration in a different way, as a loss of homeland but also the making of a new home.

Psychoanalysis Working Group

The Psychoanalysis Working Group provides a context for colleagues across the College to meet together to explore psychoanalytic theory and practice in all its diverse dimensions.

World Prison Brief

World Prison Brief (WPB) is a unique database that provides free access to information about prison systems throughout the world.

Find out more

OUR PARTNERS

Much of our research is funded by bodies including research councils (mainly the ESRC and AHRC); charitable foundations (including the Dawes Trust, the Wellcome Trust, Stiftung Auxilium, Porticus Global and the Nuffield Foundation); the Open Society Foundation; and professional bodies (e.g. the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board).

Research staff often work closely with stakeholders, for example Paul Turnbull is a member of UK and European advisory groups related to drug use and drug law enforcement; and our Centre for Research on Race and Law organises events with grass-roots anti-racist stakeholders. Our staff have also been contracted to undertake formal evaluations of some significant operational programmes such as the Offender Engagement Programme for the National Offender Management Service (Paul Turnbull); and previously the What Works Centre for evidence-based policing for the College of Policing (Emeritus Professor, Mike Hough).

Our biggest network is that created by our World Prison Research programme which works with more than 50 civil society organisations and reform champions domestically and worldwide, including the European Prisons Observatory, Penal Reform International, the Prison Policy Initiative, Fair Trials, Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, the Helsinki Committee bodies, and the Criminal Justice Network. And in 2018, the department hosted the International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA), thanks to Dr Sarah Lamble, who is also active in several prison reform action groups.

Our Visiting Judge, Visiting Professor and Research Fellowship initiatives have led to substantive relationships with eminent practitioners such as Juliet Lyon CBE, Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody; and barrister Dr Penny Cooper.

Birkbeck is a member of the UCL, Bloomsbury and East London (UBEL) Doctoral Training Partnership, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); and the AHRC funded Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) Doctoral Training Partnership.