People

Dr Anna Di Ronco

Senior Lecturer
Department of Sociology and Criminology
Dr Anna Di Ronco
  • Email

  • Telephone

    +44 (0) 1206 872115

  • Location

    6.351, Colchester Campus

  • Academic support hours

    N/A (on study leave during the Spring Term)

Profile

Biography

Winner of the 'Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award' for the Faculty of Social Sciences 2021 Centre for Criminology Director Member of the Human Rights Centre and of the Centre for Migration Studies I am Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Essex and Director of its Centre for Criminology. My research critically addresses policies and policing practices that exclude and penalise deemed uncivil people from the urban space. My work in this area mostly draws on critical and cultural criminology, but is also interdisciplinary as it engages with such disciplines as sociology, human geography, urban and socio-legal studies. My recent book, published in 2023 by Bristol University Press, focuses on the policing of eco-justice movements during the pandemic while also addressing activists' visual and performative practices of resistance at the same time. Other areas of research include: social media protest; the criminalisation of activism; social and environmental harm; and crime prevention. I have published my research extensively. Co-edited books include 'Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility' (Routledge, 2021) and 'Medical Misinformation and Social Harm in Non-Science Based Health Practices: A Multidisciplinary Perspective' (Routledge, 2020). I am co-author of 'Criminology: A Sociological Introduction' (4th ed.; Routledge, 2020), a best-selling criminology textbook written with colleagues of the Centre for Criminology. I currently serve as at-large Board member of the European Society of Criminology (ESC). I am Associate Editor for the European Journal of Criminology (EJC), and member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Criminology (BJC).

Qualifications

  • Ph.D. in Criminology (Ghent University, Belgium)

  • LM (University of Trento, Italy) University of Trento,

Appointments

University of Essex

  • Personal Tutor, Sociology, University of Essex (1/9/2017 - present)

  • Event Co-ordinator, Sociology, University of Essex (1/8/2018 - 16/8/2020)

  • Deputy Director of the Centre for Criminology @UoECrim, Sociology, University of Essex (1/9/2018 - present)

  • Second Year Module Coordinator and Enrichment, Sociology, University of Essex (5/10/2020 - present)

  • Centre for Criminology Director, Sociology, University of Essex (2/8/2021 - 31/7/2024)

  • Assistant Lecturers Director, Sociology, University of Essex (1/8/2022 - 15/1/2023)

  • Graduate Director, Sociology, University of Essex (1/8/2023 - 31/7/2024)

Research and professional activities

Research interests

Regulation and social control of uncivil behaviour

Open to supervise

Criminalisation of sex work

Open to supervise

Urban policing

Open to supervise

Environmental movements/protest

Open to supervise

Non-science-based health practices and their social harm

Open to supervise

urban studies

Open to supervise

social media protest

Open to supervise

Penalisation of dissent

Open to supervise

Criminalisation of activism

Open to supervise

Current research

Local-level prostitution policies and practices and their effects on sex workers -- Project funded by The Sociological Review Foundation (£5,149).

Harm and disorder in the urban space: social control, sense and sensibility

Environmental protest in activist practice and social visual media -- funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant 2018 (SRG18R1\181324).

Conferences and presentations

Reimagining security through redefining incivility, liveability and legitimate urban governance

Invited presentation, ECOLOGIES OF SECURITY Workshop, Centre for Criminology, 9/6/2023

Città e sex work: due esperienze locali di ‘gestione’ a confronto. (Invited speaker)

Invited presentation, Ripensare la sicurezza urbana e la prevenzione. Ricerca, politiche e pratiche nell’Europa contemporanea, Bologna, Italy, 5/12/2022

Studying eco-justice movements fighting against environmental harms

Invited presentation, Guest lecture within the module 'Sociology of violence', Milan, Italy, 26/11/2022

Flexing the muscles of power: policing urban eco-justice activism during the pandemic

EuroCrim 2022, Malaga, 21-24/09/2022, Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, 22/9/2022

Flexing the muscles of power: policing urban eco-justice activism during the pandemic

50th EG Annual Conference, Turin (Italy), 7-9/09/22, 50th Annual Conference of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, 8/9/2022

Contestation and resistance concerning eco-justice and health justice in Italy and Colombia: Two case studies

AnthroCrime 2022 – Anthropology of Crime and Security Conference, 18/5/2022

The preventive turn in crime control: myth or reality? Sex-work-related crime prevention in two European cities

Invited presentation, Guest lecture, University of Bologna, 22/4/2022

Flexing the muscles of power: policing urban eco-justice activism during the pandemic (Invited speaker)

Invited presentation, La criminalizzazione del dissenso politico e della protesta: casi e temi emergent, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, 22/4/2022

The preventive turn in crime control: myth or reality? Sex-work-related crime prevention in two European cities (Invited talk)

Invited presentation, Invited talk, Grupo de Estudios sobre la Historia de la Prisión y las Instituciones Punitivas, 6/4/2022

Flexing the muscles of power: policing urban environmental activism during the pandemic (Invited talk)

Invited presentation, I Sesión Seminario Internacional de Criminología y Política Criminal, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain, 4/4/2022

Constructing sex work as a ‘problem’ in European cities and punitive responses to it

Invited presentation, Guest lecture, University of the Basque Country, 28/3/2022

“We always have a big stick in reserve”: Punitive approaches to disorder and crime in European cities

Invited presentation, Guest Lecture, University of Trento, Trento, Italy, 8/3/2022

When dissent is criminalised: Environmental movements speaking up against megaprojects

Virtual workshop on 'Environmental restorative justice: A new justice framework for preventing and addressing environmental harms', Oñati Institute for the Sociology of Law, 4/6/2021

Regulating migrants in the city: the case of sex work

Invited presentation, Guest Lecture within the Course on “International and European Migration Policies and Law”, University of Sassari, 31/5/2021

"Doing social media research'. Representing environmental harm & resistance on Twitter: The case of the TAP pipeline in Italy

Invited presentation, Guest lecture in the course "Qualitative methods in criminology", Ghent University, Guest lecture in the course "Qualitative methods in criminology", Ghent, Belgium, 27/4/2021

Dal centro alla periferia: politiche e pratiche di regolazione del sex work (Invited speaker)

Invited presentation, Invited speaker. Convegno "Periferia/periferie: teorie, prospettive, contesti" 14 aprile 2021., Pisa, Italy, 14/4/2021

The changing remit and reach of crime prevention and their implications for people’s rights

Invited presentation, 73rd Dies Natalis Conference - SIB Groningen, 26/11/2020

Technosocial green resistance: the uses of digital communication technology in activist practice

Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology (online), 10/9/2020

Invited talk at the University of Trento (Italy)

Trento, Italy, 18/10/2019

Medical misinformation and social harm in non-science-based health practices

EUROCRIM 2019, Ghent 18-21 September 2019, Ghent, Belgium, 20/9/2019

Representations of environmental protest online and offline

EUROCRIM 2019, 18-21 September 2019, Ghent, Belgium, 19/9/2019

Representations of environmental protest online and offline

RESISTING STATE-CORPORATE HARMS IN TIMES OF REPRESSION TOWARDS A THEORY OF INSURRECTION, Barcelona 4-6 September 2019, Barcelona, Spain, 6/9/2019

Law in action: local-level and collaborative governance of prostitution in two European cities

The International Workshop ‘The Police and Sex Work: then and now’ (Berlin, 13-14 August 2019), Berlin, Germany, 14/8/2019

Invited talk

- Workshop on Migration, Trafficking, sex Work and the Law, Pagù (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil, 1-5 July 2019, Campinas, Brazil, 2/7/2019

Law in action: local-level and collaborative governance of prostitution in two European cities

Annual Meeting on Law and Society (Washington DC, May 30 - June 2, 2019), Washington D.C., United States, 31/5/2019

Invited talk at The Research Group Crime and Society (CRiS) (VUB), 28th February 2019

Brussels, Belgium, 28/2/2019

'Law in action: Local-level and collaborative governance of prostitution in two European cities – Antwerp (Belgium) and Catania (Italy)

Invited talk at the Centre of Expertise Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality (RHEA) (VUB), 25th February2019, Brussels, Belgium, 25/2/2019

The Representation of environmental protest online and offline: The case of the TAP pipeline

Invited presentation, Invited talk at the Centre for Environment and Society (CES), 7/11/2018

Activism against medicine on social media: untangling the #novax protest on Twitter

18th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 31/8/2018

Representing environmental harm and resistance on Twitter: The case of the TAP pipeline in Italy

Global Issues, Cultural Perspectives, Utrecht, Netherlands, 29/6/2018

Invited talk at the University of Sassari (Italy)

Invited presentation, research seminar, Sassari, Italy, 16/5/2018

Invited talk at BGU

Invited presentation, Research seminars, Beersheba, Israel, 20/12/2017

Representing environmental harm and resistance on Twitter: The case of the TAP pipeline in Italy

Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 18/9/2017

Invited talk at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY)

Invited presentation, 11/9/2017

Publications

Journal articles (18)

Di Ronco, A., (2024). Book Review: The Infrastructures of Security: Technologies of Risk Management in Johannesburg by Martin J. Murray. Theoretical Criminology. 28 (1), 127-129

Selmini, R. and Di Ronco, A., (2023). The criminalization of dissent and protest. Crime and Justice. 52 (1), 197-231

Bombardi, L., Di Ronco, A. and Pali, B., (2022). Editorial for the special issue: Critical green criminology goes rural Environmental crimes, harms and conflicts in rural areas and communities. Criminological Encounters. 5 (1), 9-17

Di Ronco, A. and Allen-Robertson, J., (2021). Representations of environmental protest on the ground and in the cloud: The NOTAP protests in activist practice and social visual media. Crime, Media, Culture. 0 (3), 375-399

Di Ronco, A., (2021). Critical criminological research on environmental and social harm: Some lessons learnt and suggestions for future research. Criminological Encounters. 4 (1), 200-205

Di Ronco, A., Erika, G. and Vincenzo Luca, LR., (2021). Sex worker nel quartiere catanese di San Berillo: Presenze, resistenze e trasformazioni. Tracce Urbane - Rivista Transdisciplinare di Studi Urbani. 9, 145-177

Di Ronco, A., (2020). Law in Action: Local-level prostitution policies and practices and their effects on sex workers. European Journal of Criminology. 19 (5), 1078-1096

Di Ronco, A., Allen-Robertson, J. and South, N., (2019). Representing environmental harm and resistance on Twitter: The case of the TAP pipeline. Crime, Media, Culture. 15 (1), 143-168

Di Ronco, A. and Lavorgna, A., (2018). Changing representations of organized crime in the Italian press. Trends in Organized Crime. 21 (1), 1-23

Di Ronco, A., (2018). Disorderly or simply ugly? Representations of the local regulation of street prostitution in the Italian press and their policy implications. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice. 52, 10-22

Persak, N. and Di Ronco, A., (2018). Urban space and the social control of incivilities: perceptions of space influencing the regulationof anti-social behaviour. Crime, Law and Social Change. 69 (3), 329-347

Lavorgna, A. and Di Ronco, A., (2018). Media representations of complementary and alternative medicine in the Italian press: a criminological perspective. European Journal of Criminology. 15 (4), 421-441

Di Ronco, A., (2017). La estrategia europea de la prevención de la delincuencia a través del incivismo a examen [Inspecting the European crime prevention strategy towards incivilities]. InDret. 2017 (4)

Di Ronco, A., (2016). Media representation of regulated incivilities: Relevant actors, problems, solutions and the role played by experts in the Flemish press. Criminology and Criminal Justice. 16 (5), 585-601

Di Ronco, A., (2016). Public drunkenness as a nuisance in Ghent (Belgium) and Trento (Italy). Crime, Law and Social Change. 66 (1), 59-81

Di Ronco, A., (2016). Inspecting the European crime prevention strategy towards incivilities. Crime Prevention and Community Safety. 18 (2), 141-160

Di Ronco, A. and Lavorgna, A., (2015). Fair play? Not so much: Corruption in the Italian football. Trends in Organized Crime. 18 (3), 176-195

Di Ronco, A. and Peršak, N., (2014). Regulation of incivilities in the UK, Italy and Belgium: Courts as potential safeguards against legislative vagueness and excessive use of penalising powers?. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice. 42 (4), 340-365

Books (4)

Di Ronco, A., (2023). Policing Environmental Protest: Power and Resistance in Pandemic Times. Bristol University Press. 1529228751. 9781529228755

Persak, N. and Di Ronco, A., (2021). Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility. Routledge. 9780367552664

Carrabine, E., Cox, P., Cox, A., Crowhurst, I., Di Ronco, A., Fussey, P., Sergi, A., South, N., Thiel, D. and Turton, J., (2020). Criminology. A Sociological Introduction (Fourth edition). Routledge

Lavorgna, A. and Di Ronco, A., (2019). Medical Misinformation and Social Harm in Non-science Based Health Practices A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Routledge. 1138388661. 9781138388666

Book chapters (10)

Di Ronco, A. and Chiaramonte, X., (2022). Harm to knowledge: Criminalising environmental movements speaking up against megaprojects. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Restorative Justice. Editors: Pali, B., Forsyth, M. and Tepper, F., . Springer International Publishing. 421- 447. 9783031042225

Persak, N. and Di Ronco, A., (2021). Incivilities, harm and social control in urban space. In: Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility. Editors: Persak, N. and Di Ronco, A., . Routledge. 1- 12. 9780367552664

Di Ronco, A., (2021). Power at play: The policing of sex work across two European cities. In: Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility. Editors: Persak, N. and Di Ronco, A., . Routledge. 142- 164. 9780367552664

Di Ronco, A. and Persak, N., (2021). The sensory, emotive and power dimensions of incivilities and their social control in the city. In: Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility. Editors: Persak, N. and Di Ronco, A., . Routledge. 187- 195. 9780367552664

Di Ronco, A. and Persak, N., (2021). When the city smells: Perceptions of decay and physical disorder in Rome. In: Harm and Disorder in the Urban Space: Social Control, Sense and Sensibility. Editors: Persak, N. and Di Ronco, A., . Routledge. 101- 120. 9780367552664

Di Ronco, A. and Allen-Robertson, J., (2019). Activism against medicine on social media: untangling the #novax protest in Italy on Twitter. In: Medical Misinformation and Social Harm in Non-Science Based Health Practices A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Editors: Lavorgna, A. and Di Ronco, A., . Routledge. 9781138388666

Di Ronco, A. and Sergi, A., (2019). 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. Editors: van Duyne, P., Serdyuk, A., Antonopoulos, G., Harvey, J. and von Lampe, K., . Eleven International Publishing. 149- 178. 978-94-6236-955-9

Di Ronco, A. and Lavorgna, A., (2019). Constructing migrants as crime and public order problems: comparing local press representations in two Italian cities. In: Constructing and Organising Crime in Europe. Editors: van Duyne, P., Serdyuk, A., Antonopoulos, G., Harvey, J. and von Lampe, K., . Eleven Publishing. 19- 48. 978-94-6236-955-9

Lavorgna, A. and Di Ronco, A., (2017). 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 it. Editors: van Duyne, PC., Harvey, J., Antonopoulos, GA. and von Lampe, K., . Wolf Legal Publishers. 9789462404366

Di Ronco, A., (2016). Understanding uncivil behaviour through urban space and culture. In: Regulation and Social Control of Incivilities. Editors: Persak, N., . Routledge. 108- 124. 9781138951549

Conferences (1)

Di Ronco, A. and Allen-Robertson, J., (2018). Activism against medicine on social media: untangling the #novax protest in Italy on Twitter

Grants and funding

2020

ContraST: Roundtable on governing sex work and �human trafficking� in European cities

University of Essex

2018

Law in action: local-level and collaborative governance of prostitution in two European cities

The Sociological Review

The representation of environmental protest Online and Offline

British Academy

Contact

a.dironco@essex.ac.uk
+44 (0) 1206 872115

Location:

6.351, Colchester Campus

Academic support hours:

N/A (on study leave during the Spring Term)