- Housing and domestic violence/abuse.

- Technology-assisted child sexual abuse.

- Policing responses to domestic violence/abuse.

- Child protection responses to domestic violence and abuse.

- Secondary victimisation.

- Designing out crime and CPTED.

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Last updated 18th April 2024

I have worked as a researcher (primarily academic) for most of my career; from Research Assistant, to Fellow, Senior Fellow, Reader and Professor (since 2014), with a small break working for the crime reduction charity Nacro.

My research is inter-disciplinary in nature, be that the interface between design and offender decision making/victim vulnerability; or the multi-agency approaches to reducing the impacts of online child sexual abuse and the devastation this brings to the families of those involved. In 2014 I established and Directed the Secure Societies Institute at the University of Huddersfield which brought together academics from all disciplines to reduce crime and enhance security. 

My research on designing out crime spans three decades and has influenced local, national and international planning policy - designing spaces and places to reduce burglary (within residential settings), shoplifting (within retail settings), terrorist threats (at sites of critical infrastructure and multi-modal passenger terminals), and domestic abuse (through the Sanctuary scheme). My publications in this subject area include three books – Crime Prevention through Housing Design (2013); Re-building Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (2019) and Retail Crime (2018), as well as many peer-reviewed papers, special edition journals and practice-based briefing papers/articles such as Conversation.

My research on housing design has also focused upon the role of housing in the prevention of domestic abuse (with a recent national evaluation of the Sanctuary Scheme), and the impact of housing on mental and physical health (published as peer reviewed papers, practice briefings and evidence briefings such as that provided to the APPG Housing in the North).

More recently, my research has focused upon the harms associated with online child sexual abuse (largely Child Sexual Abuse Material), focusing on policy and practice improvements to reduce the harms to family members (and in particular children) when an arrest is made/investigation is taking place. I have worked closely with key agencies including the NCA, Home Office, VKKP, NPCC, College of Policing, Ministry of Justice and many third sector organisations) to establish the Indirect Victims of Indecent Images of Children Strategic Group. I have worked alongside colleagues to influence changes in policy and practice, including the Centre for Expertise in Child Sexual Abuse guidance for social workers, the Lucy Faithful Foundation’s Faithful Paper and lobbying to change police policy at the warrant. I have contributed to articles in the Guardian (paper and podcast), Sky News, BBC Women’s Hour and the Naga Munchetty programme– all highlighting the indirect harms of CSAM offending. 

I am an applied researcher, with an ethos that research must influence change, and to this end I have active charity roles including Trustee for Acts Fast, Deputy Chair of Trustees for the Marie Collins Foundation and founder (and Trustee/Volunteer) of the charity  Talking Forward, set up with a group of wonderful colleagues, that is supporting hundreds of families affected by CSAM in the UK. I am also publishing on this subject area, with recent  peer reviewed papers in Victims and Offenders, Journal of Sexual Aggression (winner of most downloaded paper 2022) and papers on the digital identification of indecent images – our paper at the proceedings of the Thirty-third International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, Prague (2023) winning the Innovative Paper Award.

Whilst research and impact are my passions – submitting 3 and 4* Impact Case Studies in the last two REFs, with a likely 4* for the next submission, I have also held many academic roles. I was UoA 20 Co-Ordinator for REF 2021 and am current lead; I have been the Chair of the School Ethics and Integrity Board, a School Ethics Champion and led a research centre and institute. I am on the Editorial Board of several journals including Security Journal (Book Reviews Editor), the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, Crime Prevention and Community Safety, Frontiers in Psychology, Forensic and Legal Psychology and the Police Journal.  I am an invited member of many key crime prevention/reduction committees including the Home Office Safer Streets Committee; the Home Office National Burglary Taskforce; the Home Office Vehicle Crime Taskforce, the CPAI Stakeholder Group and the Child Sexual Abuse Academic Network (led by PIER). Stakeholder group. 

• Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED).
• The role of design (place, space, products, systems) in influencing anti-social and pro-social behaviour.
• The public engagement video Designing out Crime: Building Safer Communities, on the subject of designing out crime, demonstrates the concepts and also the effectiveness of this crime reduction measure.
• The role of housing in reducing domestic abuse - specifically the Sanctuary scheme. 
• Healthy housing. 
• Secondary victimisation of child sexual abuse offending. 
• Policy and practice responses to IIOC.