Justice Focus

Why is a focus on racism so often missing from prison research, even when the evidence shows time and again its power to shape experience and outcomes? In this episode, Dr Omar Phoenix Khan speaks with Dr Jason Warr , Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Nottingham about his paper ‘ Whitening Black Men ’, winnerof the BJC's 2023 Article of the Year , which sets out how the e...

In this episode, Dr Omar Phoenix Khan speakswith Professor Kate Gooch, Professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Bath, about her ethnographic research in young offender institutions and her recently published book Prison Violence: In Search of Recognition and Respect (Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology). Kate is one of the leading scholars of youth custody and prison...

Can changing the story we tell about crime actually change the policies that follow? In this episode, Dr Omar Phoenix Khan speaks with Dr Janeille Zorina Matthews, multidisciplinary criminal justice scholar, Deputy Dean, and Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, about her work at the intersections of criminology, law, storytelling, and social justice in th...

What does it mean to hope when thesystem has already decided your fate? In this episode, Dr Omar Phoenix Khan speaks with Professor Harry Annison from Southampton Law School, about penal politics, the families of indeterminate-sentenced prisoners, and why storytelling is at the heart of how criminal justice systems change, or fail to. Harry is one of the leading scholars of penal policy in England...

Why are some harms defined as crimes, while others are not? And who gets to decide? In this episode, Omar sits down with Dr Lynne Copson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the Open University, to explore the relationship between criminology and zemiology (the study of social harm), and to dig into her new edited collection, Crime, Harm and the State , co-edited with Dr Eleni Dimou and Dr Steve Tom...

Welcome back to part two of our conversation with Dr Tina Skinner . In the first episode, we explored Tina’s powerful work on gender-based violence and asked a vital question: How do we do ethical, sustainable research in such a heavy, emotionally charged field? In this second half, we shift gears to focus on Tina’s latest initiative, The Researcher Wellbeing Project — a project that dares to ask...

Dr Tina Skinner is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bath, where she has been working since 2002. She is one of the founders of the Criminology Degree at the University of Bath,and a founder of the Special Interest Group on Disability, Work, Family and Care within the Work and Families Researcher Network (USA).   In 2020, Dr Skinner was invited to give evidence to the Women and Equalities Com...

Jen Harris is the founder & Co-Director of  The Black Criminology Network , launched in 2020 to assist Criminologists of Black heritage to obtain the relevant opportunities and support to succeed in their careers. Jen is a Criminology PhD Researcher at the University of Birmingham, UK. In this episode, Omar chats to her about The Black Criminology Network and her hopes for the group, as well a...

How is crime reported — and who gets to shape the narrative? In this episode, Dr. Omar Phoenix Khan speaks with Vikram Dodd, Police and Crime Correspondent for The Guardian , about the challenges and responsibilities of covering crime, policing, and justice in the UK. With a career spanning some of the most significant moments in recent British criminal justice history — from the racist murder of...

What does it mean to police the night — and how does race shape who gets in, who gets excluded, and who decides? In this episode, Dr. Omar Phoenix Khan speaks with Dr. Nikhaela Wicks , Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent, about her ethnographic research on the night-time economy in the South of England. Based on a year of fieldwork with police officers, nightclub door staff, and othe...

How do histories of empire shape the everyday realities of policing today? In this episode, Dr. Omar Phoenix Khan speaks with Dr. Zoha Waseem , Associate Professor at the University of Warwick and Co-Coordinator of the Urban Violence Research Network (UVRN), about her research on policing, security, and urban violence in Pakistan. Drawing on over 200 interviews with serving and retired officers, a...

Finally, we're back! Announcing Series 2 of Justice Focus. A criminology podcast amplifying the voices shaping justice. Each episode features in-depth conversations with people doing the work—whether through academic research, NGO projects, or frontline practice. Together, we not only shine a spotlight on the ideas and innovations transforming criminal justice across the world, but also challenge...

Between 2003 and 2016, the average tariff for murder in England & Wales increased by almost 40% to over 20yrs of imprisonment. It's clear that as a society, we have become desensitised to these huge sentences. In this episode, Professor Ben Crewe chats to Omar about his recent book, ‘ Life Imprisonment from Young Adulthood ’ (coauthored with Dr Susie Hulley, & Dr Serena Wright), which anal...

Khatuna Tsintsadze is the Co-director of The Zahid Mubarek Trust (ZMT), an independent national charity founded in 2009 by the family of 19-year-old Zahid Mubarek who was murdered by his racist cellmate on the morning scheduled for his release from Feltham Young Offender Institution, London, UK. Khatuna chats to Omar about Zahid's legacy, her aspirations for the Trust and her personal approach to...

Professor Neil Chakraborti chats to Omar about his career in Criminology and Hate Crime Studies. They discuss recent 'trigger events' that have caused increases in hate crimes and the intersection between academic study and real-world impact: how universities can work more closely with practitioners. Neil's new book, co-authored with Stevie-Jade Hardy Blood, Threats and Fears: The Hidden Worlds of...

Dr David Skarbek is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Political Theory Project at Brown University. He is the author of The Social Order of the Underworld (Oxford, 2014), which won the APSA's William Riker Award for best book in political economy and the Outstanding Book Award from International Association for the Study of Organized Crime. His new book is called ‘...

Alison Liebling is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Institute of Criminology’s Prisons Research Centre. Alison has recently been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to embark on significant further research and took a moment to reflect on her career-to-date with Omar.  Alison's work includes a series of successful book...

Catherine Heard is a senior research fellow at ICPR - the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, based at Birkbeck, University of London. In this episode, she talks with Omar about ICPR’s World Prison Research Programme, which builds on the World Prison Brief , ICPR's online database providing details of the prison systems of over 220 independent countries and dependent territories. Ca...

Kerry Carrington is a Professor at the School of Justice in the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. In this episode, Kerry chats to Omar about the paradigm shift that is ‘ Southern Criminology ’, which exposes dominant forms of knowledge production as distinctly Northern/Western and challenges their claims of universality. Kerry also discusses her preference for co-au...

Kanika Samuels-Wortley is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Carleton University in Canada. Kanika specialises in race and racism, youth delinquency, policing, corrections, and critical race theory. Her current research explores how perceptions and experiences with racial discrimination by law enforcement officials may contribute to victimization and o...

Dr Jamie Bennett has a huge wealth of experience in senior management positions across a range of specialised prison settings. These include as Governor of high-security prison HMP Long Lartin,  and as Governor of HMP Grendon, the only prison across England and Wales to operate entirely as a series of therapeutic communities, among many others.  Today Jamie is the Deputy Director of the...

Dr Martin Glynn is a Critical Race Criminologist at Birmingham City University – but that does not come close to telling the full story. Martin is a writer, a dramatist, a data storyteller, the Writer in Residence at the National Justice Museum, and much more besides. In this episode he speaks to Omar about his alternative outlook to working within Criminal Justice, how he is able to produce so mu...

Nina Champion is Director of the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA), a coalition of over 160 member organisations working towards a fairer and more effective criminal justice system. In this episode, Nina talks with Omar about her vision for the CJA and about steps towards reform – especially in the areas of systemic racism in policing and the valuing the contribution of those with lived experience....

Dr Hannah Graham is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, University of Stirling. She talks with Omar about 'pracademia' and being close to both the practitioner and academic worlds.  Hannah talks about her book: ‘ Rehabilitation Work: Supporting Desistance and Recovery ’, and as an expert in electronic monitoring, she gives her take on t...

Andrew M. Jefferson is a senior researcher at DIGNITY the Danish Institute Against Torture. For the past two decades, he has been studying and writing about prisons and prison reform processes in the global South with a focus on countries undergoing transition. He aims to contribute to social scientific understandings of the conditions under which torture and inhumane treatment thrive with a view...