Dr Anna Di Ronco
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Email
a.dironco@essex.ac.uk -
Location
Colchester Campus
Profile
Biography
I am Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Criminology. I worked at the Department of Sociology and Criminology as Lecturer (2016-2019) and then Senior Lecturer (2019-2024) for eight years. During this time, I was also Deputy Director (2019-2021) and then Director (2021-2024) of the 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 'Criminological Connections, Directions, Horizons: Essays in Honour of Nigel South' (Routledge, 2025), 'Criminalisation of Dissent in Times of Crisis' (Palgrave, 2024), '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
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Ph.D. in Criminology (Ghent University, Belgium)
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LM (University of Trento, Italy) University of Trento,
Appointments
University of Essex
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Personal Tutor, Sociology, University of Essex (1/9/2017 - present)
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Event Co-ordinator, Sociology, University of Essex (1/8/2018 - 16/8/2020)
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Deputy Director of the Centre for Criminology @UoECrim, Sociology, University of Essex (1/9/2018 - present)
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Second Year Module Coordinator and Enrichment, Sociology, University of Essex (5/10/2020 - present)
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Centre for Criminology Director, Sociology, University of Essex (2/8/2021 - 31/7/2024)
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Assistant Lecturers Director, Sociology, University of Essex (1/8/2022 - 15/1/2023)
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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
Criminalisation of sex work
Urban policing
Environmental movements/protest
Non-science-based health practices and their social harm
urban studies
social media protest
Penalisation of dissent
Criminalisation of activism
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
Contestation & resistance concerning eco- & health justice during the COVID pandemic: Two case studies in Italy and Colombia
Invited presentation, Invited talk, Criminology External Speaker Series, 15/5/2024
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
Teaching and supervision
Current supervision
Previous supervision
Degree subject: Criminology
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 31/5/2024
Degree subject: Criminology
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 29/5/2024
Degree subject: Criminology
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 21/6/2022
Publications
Journal articles (22)
Di Ronco, A., (2025). The Effects of Criminalisation on Activists: The Case of the NoTAP Environmental Movement. Critical Criminology
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
Peršak, N. and Di Ronco, A., (2024). Security governance, harms and resistance: recalibrating security and redefining incivility through legitimacy concerns. Criminology and Criminal Justice
Di Ronco, A., (2024). Human control and ‘management’ of nonhuman animals: New research directions for green criminology. Crime, Media, Culture. 21 (3), 357-372
Caruso, P., Travaini, G., Di Ronco, A., Cermenati, N., Ratti, E., Budò, MDN., Suman, AB., Casali, M., Ambrosi, A. and Natali, L., (2024). Environmental restorative justice in italy: a pilot study of lawyers’ perceptions. Rassegna Italiana Di Criminologia. 18 (3), 188-197
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 (6)
Di Ronco, A., Carrabine, E., South, N., Lea, J., Ruggiero, V., Coomber, R., Tzanetakis, M., White, R., Wyatt, T., Sollund, R., van Uhm, D., Crook, M., Short, D., Natali, L., Brisman, A. and McClanahan, B., (2025). Criminological Connections, Directions, Horizons Essays in Honour of Nigel South. Routledge. 9781032513003
Di Ronco, A. and Selmini, R., (2024). Criminalisation of Dissent in Times of Crisis. Palgrave MacMillan. 3031753755. 9783031753756
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 (15)
Di Ronco, A. and Natali, L., (2024). Conveying environmental harms through music. In: Criminological Connections, Directions, Horizons. Routledge. 182- 197
Di Ronco, A. and Selmini, R., (2024). Criminalising dissent: key themes and emerging trends. In: Criminalisation of Dissent in Times of Crisis. Editors: Di Ronco, A. and Selmini, R., . Palgrave. 1- 14. 9783031753756
Di Ronco, A. and Cavalcanti Pessoa, R., (2024). Tightening the grip of control: eco-justice activists’ experiences of repression during the pandemic. In: Criminalisation of Dissent in Times of Crisis. Editors: Di Ronco, A. and Selmini, R., . Palgrave MacMillan. 161- 182. 3031753755. 9783031753756
Natali, L. and Di Ronco, A., (2024). Competing narrations around visual representations of environmental conflicts and protests. In: Visual Methods for Sensitive Images: Ethics and Reflexivity in Criminology On/Offline. Editors: Harder, S. and Anderdal Bakken, S., . Palgrave Macmillan. 193- 210. 978-3-031-75371-8
Carrabine, E. and Di Ronco, A., (2024). Introduction. In: Criminological Connections, Directions, Horizons. Routledge. 1- 7
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
Reports and Papers (1)
Di Ronco, A., (2020). END OF PROJECT REPORT: Law in Action: local-level and collaborative governance of prostitution in two European cities – Antwerp (Belgium) and Catania (Italy)
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
