Annual Conference
2025 Conference
Theme: Criminology for Social Justice
With inclusivity at its core, our focus is on how Criminology furthers the development of human rights, equal opportunities, integrity and fair treatment within the criminal justice system, and promotes the interests of disadvantaged communities and groups. We welcome all approaches, including critical conceptual and methodological approaches, lived experience, as well as civic engagement and applied research. The conference aims to further influence decision-making in government, and improve public policy, society, and everyone’s lives. We look forward to hosting you in Portsmouth by the sea in 2025!
The conference is face-to-face. We are bringing together delegates from diverse backgrounds (academics, policymakers, practitioners, NGOs, businesses) to discuss and share ideas on the most seminal and pressing issues in criminology today. Like previous years the conference programme starts with a dedicated postgraduate research day, and comprises plenary sessions, parallel sessions, roundtables, a poster session, and author meets critics sessions. We provide opportunities to network, expand your knowledge, and to present ideas to others.
Plenaries
We are excited to announce our fantastic line-up of plenary speakers, whose expertise spans survivor-centric justice, violence prevention, and intersectional reform. Day 1’s plenary will spotlight transformative survivor-led frameworks, while Day 2 features dynamic debates on innovative responses to sexual and interpersonal violence. Day 3, confronts systemic inequities through intersectional lenses of race, gender, and sexuality to reimagine justice.
Drawing on their expertise as scholars, practitioners, and activists, our speakers will forge vital connections between theory, policy, and societal transformation, reaffirming criminology’s pivotal role in advancing social justice.
Be part of a transformative agenda—where academia meets action. Secure your place by the sea in 2025!
Plenary Speakers line-up:
DAY 1 (Wednesday 2nd of July) – Transforming Justice: Centering Survivor Voices in Policy and Practice
Prof Liz Kelly – Still Surviving Sexual Violence: a reflection on a conceptual journey
Prof Anastasia Powell – Towards a Trauma-Transformative Criminology
DAY 2 (Thursday 3rd of July) – Advancing Justice Responses in Prevention, Accountability and Rehabilitation in Interpersonal and Sexual Violence
Prof Jane Monckton-Smith – Can Coercive Control theory balance inequities for women and girls in the criminal justice system?
Prof Nicholas Blagden – Rehabilitating and Reintegrating People with Sexual Convictions: Correctional Practice, Community Engagement and…Compassion?
DAY 3 (Friday 4th of July) – Justice Through an Inclusive Lens: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Criminology
Prof Sarah Lamble – Queer Criminology in an Era of Culture War Politics
Prof Onwubiko Agozino – On Impunity and Penal Abolitionism: The Withering Away of the Punitive Turn in Criminology.
Visit the 2025 Conference website here.
Key dates
Final Registration closed on 30 May 2025
Abstract Submissions are now closed for 2025
BSC 2025 Conference Bursaries are now closed
Enquiries about the 2025 conference should be sent to the team at Portsmouth: bsc2025@port.ac.uk
Recent Conferences
2024 – Criminology in Times of Transition – 10-12th July 2024 – University of Strathclyde – Glasgow
BSC2024 was hosted by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
The programme for the conference can be downloaded here.
2023 – Sustaining Futures: Remaking Criminology in an age of Global Injustice. 27 – 30 June, 2023. 
The 2023 conference was hosted by the University of Central Lancashire.
The programme for the conference can be downloaded here.
2022 – Reimagining Criminological Futures: New Criminologies in a Changing World. 
The 2022 Conference was hosted by the University of Surrey
2021 – Crime and Harm: Challenges of social and global justice?
The BSC and the Open University collaborated to bring you our first fully online conference – more information about the conference, the programme, network activities, plenary speakers, prizes, together with a special edition of Criminology and Criminal Justice and a range of social events is now available:
2020 – Criminology in an Age of Global Injustice(s)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we were forced to cancel our 2020 conference which would have been hosted by The University of Liverpool. This decision meant delegates missed the chance to network with their peers and present their research. In recognition of these lost opportunities we offered some alternative ways of engaging including online panels, publisher sessions and network rooms.
2019 – BSC Annual Conference – Lincoln – Public Criminologies: Communities, Conflict and Justice
2018 – BSC Annual Conference – Birmingham – Transforming Criminology: Rethinking Crime in a Changing World
2017 – BSC Annual Conference -Sheffield – Forging Social Justice: Local Challenges, Global Complexities
2016 – BSC Annual Conference – Nottingham – Inequalities in a diverse world – Book of Abstracts 2016
2015 – BSC Annual Conference – Plymouth – Criminology: Voyages of critical discovery – Book of Abstracts 2015
2014 – BSC Annual Conference – Liverpool – Crime, Justice, Welfare: Can the Metropole listen?
2013 – BSC Annual Conference – Wolverhampton – Criminology on Trial
2012 – BSC Annual Conference – Portsmouth – Criminology at the Borders
2011 – BSC Annual Conference – Northumbria – Economies and Insecurities of Crime and Justice
2010 – BSC Annual Conference – Leicester – Human Rights, Human Wrongs: Dilemmas and Diversity in Criminology
2009 – BSC Annual Conference, Cardiff – A Mirror or a Motor? What is Criminology For?
2008 – BSC Annual Conference, Huddersfield – Criminological Futures: Controversies, Developments and Debate
2007 – BSC Annual Conference, London
2006 – BSC Annual Conference, Glasgow
2005 – BSC Annual Conference, Leeds – Re-Awakening the Criminological Imagination
2004 – BSC Annual Conference, Portsmouth
2003 – BSC Annual Conference, Bangor
2002 – BSC Annual Conference, Keele
The BSC conference, previously bi-annual, began to take place annually from 2002
2000 – BSC Annual Conference, Leicester
1999 – BSC Annual Conference, Liverpool
1997 – BSC Conference, Belfast
1995 – BSC Conference, Loughborough
1993 – BSC Conference, Cardiff
1991 – BSC Conference, York
1989 – BSC Conference, Bristol
1987 – BSC Conference, Sheffield
Turning Presentations into Publications
For publications, also see Papers from the British Criminology Conference and consider turning your presentation into a publication.
Conferences Committee
Vicky Heap (Chair), Zöe James, Louise Westmarland, Nic Groombridge, Carina O’Reilly, Kate Strudwick, Charlotte Harris and Helen Jones.