The Centre for Criminology at Essex has both produced and attracted some of the most influential criminologists of the past 50 years, and continues to push intellectual and policy boundaries, while training and supporting the next generation of criminologists for the future.
Research interests, projects and publications have been wide-ranging, from studies of the personal and the cultural, through the mapping of organised and corporate criminality, to investigations of state systems of support and intervention, surveillance and violence - all with a critical and sociological approach as the common core.
Eamonn Carrabine is a professor of sociology at the University of Essex, where his teaching and research interests lie in the fields of criminology, cultural studies and sociology more generally.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Eamonn has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Alexandra Cox is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex. Her research interests lie in the consequences of confinement for young people and in the role of mercy in the lives of people sentenced to extreme prison sentences.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Alexandra has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Pamela Cox is a professor specialising in criminal justice history, social history and gender. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary ESRC project on victims’ access to justice in English criminal courts over three centuries.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Pam has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Isabel Crowhurst is a senior lecturer, and her main research is concerned with the construction and socio-legal treatment of non-normative sexual practices and intimate lives, and how they are negotiated and made sense of in everyday lived experiences.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Isabel has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Pete Fussey is a professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex. His main research interests focus on surveillance, digital sociology, human rights, control and the city, and he has published widely across these areas
Below you will find highlights of the work that Pete has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Chris Greer is Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research (Designate) and Professor of Sociology. His research and teaching interests are in the broad areas of: Crime, media and criminal justice; Sociology of media and communication; Victimology; Punishment and penality; Criminological theory.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Chris has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Kat Hadjimatheou is a lecturer in criminology. Her areas of expertise include police ethics, surveillance technologies, data-driven policing, domestic abuse and human trafficking.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Kat has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Johanna Römer is a lecturer, and her research examines how state power and political authority are produced through the everyday interactions and experiences of persons working within and subject to criminal justice institutions.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Johanna has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Anna Di Ronco is a senior lecturer in criminology. Her main research interests lie in regulation, representation and enforcement regarding urban incivilities, and in the use of social media by criminalised environmental movements.
Medical Misinformation and Social Harm in Non-Science Based Health Practices: A multidisciplinary perspective published by Routledge
Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility published by Routledge
Selected Book Chapters:
From harmless incivilities to not-so serious organised crime activities. The expanded realm of European crime prevention and some suggestions on how to limit it in Constructing and Organising Crime in Europe published by Eleven International Publishing
Activism against medicine on social media: Untangling the #novax protest on Twitter in Medical Misinformation and Social Harm in Non-Science Based Health Practices: A multidisciplinary perspective published by Routledge
Constructing migrants as crime and public order problems: Comparing local press representations in two Italian cities in Constructing and Organising Crime in Europe published by Eleven International Publishing
Fraud victims or unwary accomplices? An exploratory study of online communities supporting quack medicine in The Many Faces of Crime for Profit and Ways of Tackling published by Wolf Legal Publisher
Understanding uncivil behaviour through urban culture and space in Regulation and Social Control of Incivilities published by Routledge
Regulating street prostitution as a public nuisance in the “culture of consumption”: A comparative analysis between Birmingham, Brussels and Milan in Reframing Prostitution: From discourse to description, from moralisation to normalisation? published by Antwerp
Anna Sergi is a senior lecturer. Her specialism is in organised crime, mafia studies, and comparative criminal justice.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Anna has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Carlos Solar is a lecturer in criminology. His research interests fit broadly under the areas of democratic governance; criminology, mostly on policing, corruption, and organised crime; and military studies.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Carlos has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
Nigel South is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex. His research interests include environmental crime, green criminology and human rights; illegal and legal drug use; theoretical and comparative criminology; and public health and community services.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Nigel has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
The Routledge International Handbook of Green Criminology published by Routledge
Water, Crime and Security in the Twenty-First Century: Too dirty, too little, too much published by Palgrave
Women and the Criminal Justice System: Failing victims and offenders? published by Palgrave
The Routledge Companion to Criminological Theory and Concepts published Routledge
Environmental Crime in Latin America: The theft of nature and the poisoning of the land published by Palgrave
Green Cultural Criminology: Constructions of environmental harm, consumerism, and resistance to ecocide published by Routledge
Issues in Green Criminology: Confronting harms against environments, humanity and other animals published by Routledge
Drug Use in Cultural Contexts ‘Beyond the West’: Tradition, change and post-colonialism published by Free Association Books
Drugs: Cultures, controls and everyday life published by Sage
EuroDrugs: Drug use, markets and trafficking in Europe published by UCL Press
Traffickers: Drug markets and law enforcement published by Routledge
Policing for Profit: The private security sector published by Sage
A Land Fit for Heroin? Drug policies, prevention and practice published by Macmillan
Darren Thiel is a senior lecturer with research interests in public policy, criminal justice, policing and economic sociology.
Below you will find highlights of the work that Daniel has authored and co-authored in relation to the work of the Centre for Criminology:
The Centre for Criminology has pioneered projects at the leading edge of the field – whether examining support for families interacting with the criminal justice system or the state of the planet and environmental harms. Contributing to public debate, policy evidence and scholarly discussion is what we do and our research has been making its impact on society ever since Stan Cohen wrote about ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’.
Explore our current research and past research projects below:
Pete Fussey
Pam Cox
Anna Sergi
Kat Hadjimatheou
Alexandra Cox -
Eamonn Carrabine
Carlos Solar
Chris Greer
Anna Di Ronco
Isabel Crowhurst
Johanna Romer
2019 British Academy Leverhulme Small Grant: National Law, Transnational Justice? The role of legal status in parole decision-making in Catalonia, Spain
2020 ISRF Flexi-Grant with James Allen-Robertson Deciphering Violence: New Network Analytic Tools to Improve Hate Speech Detection Online
Nigel South
I am Co-PI on a Global Challenges Research Fund project on ‘COVID-19, Indigenous Communities and Health Justice in Colombia’
With their research and expertise, our members cover a wide range of topics within criminology. These include: crime and the media; organised crime; urban disorder and social control; racism, victims and victimology; sexual labour, regulation and human rights; drug use and markets; women, crime and criminal justice; security; surveillance; green criminology and crimes against the environment; terrorism and counter-terrorism; policing, prisons, punishment and the criminal justice system.
The breath and variety of our interests ensure our work crosses disciplinary boundaries as we draw upon sociology, history, law, urban and rural studies, anthropology, art and film studies, political science and much more.
Discover cutting edge research from the University of Essex. Browse our site to find relevant publications, projects, groups, centres, postgraduate opportunities for research supervision and wider areas of interest. Simply search our site to find information relating to your subject.