Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology Activities

Professor Tracey Sagar and Associate Professor Debbie Jones at the School of Social Sciences have been carrying out research into the nature and understanding of sex work for many years. Their work has sought to reconceptualise sex work to help reduce stigma and improve the well-being of sex workers, especially with regard to student sex workers. It has also resulted in wide ranging changes to policy in practice in Wales. Sex work is now viewed as an issue requiring multi-agency approaches. It is also recognised as an essential factor in policy making in other areas, such as domestic violence and modern slavery.  

The report from The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, was co-funded by the Welsh Government and authored by Dr Susan Roberts.

The research described in this report set out to build a better understanding of the scale of child sexual abuse (CSA) encountered by local authority children’s services in Wales, and to explore how concerns regarding CSA are identified, recorded and responded to. The report forms part of the actions listed in 2019’s Welsh Government National Action Plan: Preventing and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse.

In this blog post, Mark Jones and Debbie Jones share their experiences of conducting inclusive focus groups with adults that have offended or are at high risk of offending. They suggest that, when appropriate, researchers can be bold and step away from the confinements that hold them back and endeavour to make societal changes happen in practice.

Read their blog post

A blog post written by Dr Rick Lines and criminology students, Olivia Howells and Daniel Webb, for the Global Drug Policy Observatory at Swansea University. The blog looks at drug use in prisons, and the ‘unintended consequences’ - investigating whether the prohibited use of drugs drives related harms, such as the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS).

Read the full blog post.

Dr Rick Lines and criminology student, Ellie Harding, co-wrote a new blog post for ‘Talking Drugs’. Their post talks about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on drug use in prisons, looking at how prisoners are some of the most vulnerable to viral contagion, the extreme isolation that has been caused by the pandemic, the illicit economy of drug dealing in prisons, and the vicious circle this causes for prisoners.

Read the full post.

Understanding Aspiration and Education towards Desistance from Offending: The Role of Higher Education in Wales

The aim of this study was to explore the role of Higher Education in supporting aspiration towards desistance from offending behaviours in a very localised area, Swansea. In achieving this overall aim, the project also sought to explore the use of Pictorial Narrative Mapping as a research tool to both gather data and empower those involved in the research.

On Tuesday Oct 30^th, Dr Anthony Charles, Co-ordinator of the Innovative Youth Justice Team at the School of Social Sciences at Swansea University, was named as a new Associate of the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ).

Read the full story.

Joint research conducted by Rick Lines and the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) was presented at two events, one in London on October 29th, and another at Swansea University on the 30th. The presentations focussed on their recent research on the use of new psychoactive substances in Moldova and Belarus and recommendations to adapt the harm reduction response. The research was supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund.

A range of people attended the events, from an array of organisations, which included NGOs and donors (Release, Harm Reduction International, International Drug Policy Consortium, Frontline AIDS, Talking Drugs, Elton John AIDS Foundation), as well as staff and students from Swansea University.

Download the Seminar Flyer.

The Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology runs a regular seminar series. The first seminars of the 19/20 academic year took place on October 23rd, where two papers were presented:

1) Dr Melissa Mendez - 'Partisanship and positionality in qualitative research: Exploring the influences of the researcher’s experiences of serious crime on the research process'. 

2) Joe Janes - 'The Role and Influence of Welsh Youth Offending Teams in the Context of Pre-Devolution Youth Justice'. 

New Pathways and Swansea University (Dr Susan Roberts) have been funded by Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales to conduct research with adult survivors of sexual violence to learn more about their experiences of counselling; and their views on how counsellors should be trained. The research findings will inform the content and delivery of a new Diploma in Counselling for Trauma; and was disseminated at an event on 15th August 2019 at Swansea University.

Dr Susan Roberts is currently involved in funded research with the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse.

The focus of this research is on: ‘Uncovering the scale of child sexual abuse in social care records’.