Prisons, punishment and policing
Our research in this area develops a critical knowledge of penal policies with cross-cutting expertise on regulation and governance and criminalisation, social fairness and social justice.
Our research has a focus on three main topics:
- punishments and more specifically extreme forms of punitive treatments (the death penalty and life imprisonment);
- the means employed to control certain groups of individuals;
- the mechanisms implemented to incite offenders to desist from crime.
Our research privileges local and granular explorations as well as comparative and multidisciplinary methodologies.
To develop systematic and critical knowledge of the key empirical and theoretical discussions about punishments and the penal policies brought forward to control and reintegrate offenders.
Research projects
The Learning Criminology Inside project started in September 2017 at HM Risley Prison.
Drawing on the model of other prison-university partnerships (eg “Inside Out” at Durham and “Learning Together” at Cambridge), this pilot project involved 3rd year BA Criminology students studying weekly with prison-based students.
Together, in the prison, they had seminars, discussing the course content for ‘From Imprisonment to Rehabilitation’, facilitated by university staff and invited experts. This project aimed to provide higher educational opportunities to those who do not usually have easy access to it, to give University of Manchester students an enriched learning experience and to strengthen links between The University of Manchester and the criminal justice system.
Funding by CHERIL provided the opportunity to research the outcomes and impacts participating in the course had on all students and staff who took part in the course. The main findings were that taking part in the course enhanced learning for both sets of students. Both prison-based students and university-based students reported experiencing transformational personal benefits as a result of the project.
Following the completion of the project, the Learning Criminology Inside module continues to run on our BA Criminology course for final year students (Field trips have been put on hold due to COVID-19).
Principle Investigator: Reka Solymosi, 01/10/19 – 30/05/20
The Civic Innovation In Community: Safety, Policing and Trust with Young People project worked with university students and police to re-establish trust between the two groups.
Perpetrators of modern slavery offences: motivations, networks and backgrounds
(April 2018 - October 2021)
Funder: ESRC
Researchers: Rose Broad, David Gadd, Elisa Bellotti, Carly Lightowlers.
The problem of modern slavery is of global political concern. Policy development has nevertheless raced ahead of research on the subject, of which there is a genuine lack.
International bodies and governments have tried – not always successfully – to produce estimates of the scale of the problem, and there are now a handful of studies documenting the plight of those trafficked.
However, few studies have been undertaken with those regarded as the perpetrators of modern slavery offences.
The aim of this project is to produce an understanding of the problem of modern slavery informed by first-hand interviews with those convicted for these offences. It will use arrest and conviction data to profile perpetrators together with in-depth interviews with those convicted under the UK 2015 Modern Slavery Act to explore how and why some people traffic others, what circumstances and social networks have contributed to their offending, as well as what has impeded it.
Find out more
- David Buil-Gil, Nicholas Lord and Emma Barrett, 2021. The Dynamics of Business, Cybersecurity and Cyber-Victimization: Foregrounding the Internal Guardian in Prevention, Victims & Offenders, 16:3, 286-315.
- Nicholas Lord, Yongyu Zeng, Aleksandra Jordanoska, 2020. White-Collar Crimes Beyond the Nation-State.
- Rose Broad, Nicholas Lord, Charlotte Duncan, 2020. The financial aspects of human trafficking: A financial assessment framework. Criminology & Criminal Justice.
- David Gadd, Rosemary Broad. 2018. Troubling Recognitions in British Responses to Modern Slavery. British Journal of Criminology. Volume 58, Issue 6, November 2018, Pages 1440–1461.
COVID-19 has seen an increased vulnerability to cyber crime. In this blog, Professor Emma Barrett, Professor Danny Dresner, and Dr David Buil-Gil outline why victims of cyber crime need greater protection, including a raft of ‘CPR’ measures designed to help them recover quickly.
David Gadd and Rose Broad highlight how modern slavery and immigration law have become intertwined, whilst acknowledging that referring to perpetrators as evil can idealise victims in ways that can be detrimental.
A new report has found that corruption in the UK is being overlooked, despite the risk of corruption being fuelled by self-regulation, conflicts of interest and austerity.
Leading research into modern slavery has won two University of Manchester academics the prestigious Radzinowicz Prize for their contribution to the field of criminology.