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I am a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and an ADR UK (Adminstrative Data Research) Research Fellow. My ADR research project is examining the relationship between school exclusions and offending using a Ministry of Justice and Department of Education deidentified linked administrative dataset. I am also Deputy Director of the Crime and Policing Research Centre.

Prior to commencing the Fellowship, I was Course Leader for BSc Criminology and module leader for Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice and Introduction to Explaining Crime. I have taught on a range of modules including Exploring the Social Sciences, Working with Offenders and Victims, Experiencing Punishment in the Penal System and Final Year Project. During the course of my PhD, I taught modules on the BA Criminology and on the BA Sociology with Criminology at the University of Sheffield including: Comprehending Criminology, Analysing Crime Data, Criminology Research Project, Youth Crime and Justice, and Crime, Justice and Social Policy. 

I joined the Department of Social and Psychological Sciences as a Lecturer in Criminology in June 2021 shortly after completing my PhD. I completed my doctoral studies in the School of Law at the University of Sheffield, following completion of an MA in International Criminology also at the University of Sheffield. Following completion of my PhD, I was an Associate Lecturer for a short period (January to April 2021) teaching Research Methods (quantitative) and Motivational Interviewing and Behavioural Change in the College of Health, Wellbeing, and Life Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University. I also worked as a Research Assistant (April to June 2021) in the School of Law at the University of Sheffield administering a survey and undertaking quantitative and qualitative analysis on a project investigating students’ sense of belonging, engagement, and self-confidence during the pandemic.

Prior to returning to academia in 2016 to complete my MA and PhD, I worked for almost a decade as a probation officer in the National Probation Service. As part of the probation officer training, I completed a BA (Hons) in Community and Criminal Justice and an NVQ Level 4 in Community Justice (Working with Offending Behaviour) at De Montfort University. Prior to this, I completed a P.G.C.E in Post-compulsory Education and Training at Sheffield Hallam University and worked for a number of years teaching languages (I completed my first degree in Modern Languages at the University of Huddersfield in 1998) in secondary and further education.

I am a mixed methods researcher with my research interests stemming from my professional experience as a probation officer. I observed the impacts of policy decisions on the experiences of individuals on probation across multiple policy areas. My research therefore takes a multi-disciplinary approach considering the interactions between policy areas (i.e. criminal justice, education, and welfare) and those who interact with them.

Broadly, I am interested in punitiveness (sanctioning) as a policy response. My current ADR UK Fellowship is using a linked Department for Education and Ministry of Justice deidentified dataset to explore school pupils interactions with the criminal justice system specifically in relation to school exclusions. This project draws on a range of school- and offence-related factors to trace the offending patterns of excluded school children into early adulthood. This considers how different types of school exclusions (temporary or permanent), geographic characteristics, and whether a pupil is in mainstream school or a Pupil Referral Unit might influence the paths young people take into offending. 

Additionally, I am interested in the impacts on practitioners' wellbeing of working in the criminal justice system. 

I am on the editorial board of the British Journal of Community Justice, and a member of the British Society of Criminology and the European Society of Criminology.