About

Critical criminology, broadly understood, has its roots in Britain and it remains a key component of the discipline both nationally and internationally. Our network that will bring together academics, postgraduate students and practitioners working in this field in order to facilitate discussion, collaboration and intellectual innovation. We are particularly keen to encourage younger criminologists to formulate their own critical accounts of the world and its injustices, and, by doing so, assist critical criminology to move forwards to a new period of vibrancy, growth and productivity.

The social problems associated with the post-crash era – austerity, mass imprisonment, growing inequality, war, terrorism, mass migration, structural underemployment, ecological degradation, slavery, exploitation, corporate intrusion into our private lives, and so on – have led to a resurgence of interest in critical criminology. However, given the huge changes that have taken place, we cannot simply return to the ideas of the sixties and seventies and apply them to the problems we face today. We need to breathe new life into critical criminology, and we hope that our network can encourage critical criminologists to hatch new ideas that relate to the world as it is now.

Chair
Tammy Ayres: tca2@leicester.ac.uk

Steering Group
Tammy Ayres (Leicester) – chair; Oliver Smith (Plymouth); Tom Raymen (Plymouth) – deputy chair, treasurer; Rowland Atkinson (Sheffield) – publicity, media; Simon Winlow (Northumbria) – BSC Executive liaison; Luke Telford (Teesside) – postgraduate representative; Alex Hall (Northumbria) – conferences, seminars and presentations; James Treadwell (Staffordshire) – prizes; Corina Medley (Plymouth) – conferences, seminars and presentations; Anthony Lloyd (Teesside) – publicity, media; Joanna Large (Bristol) – secretary and social media lead; John Lea (Leicester) – old school.

Nick Gibbs and Mark Bushell: Event Coordinator & Organisers

Dr Nick Gibbs is an Assistant Professor in Criminology at Northumbria University. 

His work concerns image and performance enhancing drugs, illicit markets, and critical sports criminology. Nick’s scholarship aims to advance critical criminological theory, drawing on the ultra realist framework as well as borrowing from other disciplines in the pursuit of nuanced understanding. He takes an interdisciplinary methodological approach, favouring a range of novel qualitative methods including digital ethnography and in-depth interviews.

Dr Mark Bushell is an Assistant Professor in Criminology and Sociology at Northumbria 

University. His research interests include the nighttime economy, consumerism, deviant leisure and occupational cultures of violence and harm. He is also interested in deploying critical conceptual ideas from ultra-realist criminological theory, psychoanalysis and neuropsychology to better understand harmful subjectivities across the social sphere.

Dr. Manikandan Soundararajan: International Co-Organiser of the International Conference on Global Criminology and Victimology with the BSC Critical Criminology Network and Founder & Executive Director, ThinkJustice Foundation, India

Dr. Manikandan Soundararajan is a criminology scholar and researcher currently serving as Culture & Insight Researcher at Northamptonshire Police, UK, where he is involved in various research activities including public confidence and trust in the police, victim surveys, engagement with harder-to-reach groups, community engagement, and the evaluation of interventions and programmes. He also serves as Chair of the Postgraduate Committee at the British Society of Criminology, where he represents postgraduate students’ interests, organises networking opportunities, and supports postgraduate conference organisation. He advocates extensively for Global South students and their representation in criminology research, promoting inclusive scholarship and dismantling barriers to international academic participation. He is also Founder & Executive Director of ThinkJustice Foundation, India, where he promotes justice education and advances research, advocacy, and practice in criminology and victimology in India and across South Asia. Under ThinkJustice Foundation, India, Manikandan and his team organise the flagship International Conference on Global Criminology and Victimology.