2025 ICPR Annual Lecture: 'Reimagining the Courtroom'
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
The courtroom holds an important place in the public imagination. In this imagination, it is the place where justice is served; where ‘the truth’ is pursued; where individuals and organisations – including the institutions of the state – are publicly held to account. People caught up in conflicts and legal processes of many different kinds have high expectations of their ‘day in court’.
Much of Professor Jessica Jacobson’s research for more than 20 years has examined processes in criminal, family and coroners’ courts, from the perspectives of legal professionals and members of the public who enter these spaces as parties, witnesses or in some other capacity. In this 2025 ICPR annual lecture, Jessica will discuss what her research has revealed about the wide gulf that exists between popular imaginings and the realities of the courtroom. She will also reflect on what we might learn from this research about how the courtroom could be differently configured and constituted.
Jessica Jacobson is Professor of Criminal Justice at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research encompassesmany aspects of justice including prisons, sentencing and lay participation in judicial proceedings. Her publications include Inside Crown Court (Policy Press, 2015, with Gillian Hunter and Amy Kirby); Imprisonment Worldwide (Policy Press, 2016, with Andrew Coyle, Helen Fair and Roy Walmsley); and Participation in Courts and Tribunals (Bristol University Press, 2020, co-edited with Penny Cooper). Most recently, Jessica led the ESRC-funded study Voicing Loss, which explored the role of bereaved people in coroners' investigations and inquests.
The Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR), based in Birkbeck’s School of Social Sciences, conducts academically-grounded, policy-oriented research on justice.The overarching aims of ICPR’s work are to produce and disseminate knowledge about justice, and thereby to inform public and political debate, and to contribute to improvements in policy and practice. All ICPR’s research is informed by concerns with justice, fairness and human rights.
The 2025 ICPR Annual Lecture marks the transition of the ICPR directorship from Jessica Jacobson to Mai Sato in February 2025.
Agenda:
- 17:30 Registration
- 18:00 Opening
- Mai Sato, Professor and incoming Director of ICPR
- 18:05 Lecture
- Jessica Jacobson, Professor and Director of ICPR
- 18:45 Discussants:
- Juliet Lyon, Birkbeck Visiting Professor; formerly Director of the Prison Reform Trust and Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody
- Dr Imogen Jones, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Leeds
- 19:00 Q&A
- 19:25 Closing
- 19:30 Reception
Contact name:
Birkbeck External Events Team
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Prof Jessica Jacobson
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Jessica Jacobson is Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of ICPR at Birkbeck, University of London. She completed her PhD at the London School of Economics in 1996, on the topic of ethnic and religious identities among second-generation British Pakistanis (published by Routledge as Islam in Transition in 1997). Since then she has developed her expertise in criminal justice research, initially as a Home Office researcher, and then as an independent researcher and policy consultant. She has been based at ICPR since 2011.
As ICPR’s Director, Jessica oversees the institute’s ambitious and wide-ranging programme of academically-grounded, policy-oriented research on crime and justice. She has designed and led a large number of funded research projects and published widely on many aspects of justice including prisons, sentencing, criminal investigations, and lay participation in judicial proceedings. Her publications include Inside Crown Court: Personal experiences and questions of legitimacy (Policy Press, 2015, with Gillian Hunter and Amy Kirby); Imprisonment Worldwide: The Current Situation and an Alternative Future (Policy Press, 2016, with Andrew Coyle, Helen Fair and Roy Walmsley); and Participation in Courts and Tribunals: Concepts, Realities and Aspirations (Bristol University Press, 2020, co-edited with Penny Cooper).