Engagement and Impact

CCR members engage with a range of external stakeholders inside and outside of academia, as well as undertaking dissemination, knowledge exchange and impact activities, which have led to successful impact case studies in Research Excellence Framework assessment exercises.

On

Current knowledge exchange and impact activities 

  • ‘Good’ police custody: influencing policy and practice - Professor Layla Skinns
    Findings from the ESRC-funded ‘good’ police custody were used to influence police custody policies and practices. This will be one of the first studies to rigorously examine ‘good’ police custody and to map out changes to police custody arrangements on a national basis.
  • Changing the course of justice for victims and offenders - Professor Joanna Shapland
    Almost 20 years ago, in 2001, Professor Joanna Shapland and her research team at the University of Sheffield took on a momentous research project. They were to evaluate three restorative justice schemes involving serious offences in England and Wales and the effect they had on perpetrators’ reoffending and victims’ needs. This research was the first major evaluation of its kind in the world. Two decades later this work has moved further afield and is now changing the way Scotland approaches rehabilitation and justice. 
  • Rehabilitating Probation - Gwen Robinson
    Gwen Robinson's project 'Rehabilitating Probation' (in which she is Co-I) has a range of KE events built into its design, including several events with senior managers within the Probation Service and with HMPPS. Their submission to the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee was cited in its report published December 2023. Gwen also presented a paper at a 1-day UKRI funded KE event on the Professional Register for probation (2 Feb 2024).
  • Prison Reform - Dr Marie Hutton 
    The Prison Reform International Roundtable on Corruption in Prisons, held on 20-21st November 2023 leading to the publication of an international guide. Beneficiaries are international organisations designated as part of the National Preventative Mechanism under UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Impact case studies - REF 2021

  • Changing police custody law, policy, and practice - Professor Layla Skinns
    Professor Layla Skinns’ research on dignity in police custody for children and adults has had substantial impact on the law, police policy, practice, and the design of police custodial settings.
  • Establishing the basis for implementing restorative justice in Scotland, and England and Wales - Professor Joanna Shapland
    Research on the effectiveness of restorative justice and its implementation, through the Restorative Justice Forum, has formed the basis of statutory guidance from the Scottish Government. The research has underpinned the development of this type of justice in Scotland and is impacting on practitioners in England and Wales. In Scotland, this includes a commitment by ministers to create and develop provision at all stages of criminal justice by 2023, published in their Action Plan. In England and Wales, it informs the key guidance on what works to police and has inspired delivery in probation.

Partnerships with external stakeholders

CCR members are currently formally involved in two partnerships with external stakeholders:

  1. Sheffield University Policing Research Group
  2. N8 Policing Research Partnership

Editorial

  • Dr Matt Bacon - Policing & Society
  • Dr Jane Dominey & Professor Gwen Robinson- Editorial Board member, Probation Journal
  • Dr David Hayes - Board member for the journal Incarceration
  • Dr Xavier D L’Hoiry - Editorial board member of the journals Trends in Organized Crime and Urban Crime
  • Professor Jesse Matheson - Associate Editor, Bulletin of Economic Research
  • Dr Ciara Molloy - Co-editor alongside Dr Richard McMahon of the Studies in Irish Crime History book series published by Cork University Press, and member of the Editorial Review Board of Policing: An International Journal
  • Professor Joanna Shapland - 
    • Executive Editor, International Review of Victimology
    • Member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the book series ‘Studies in Restorative Justice’, published by Eleven International Publishing
    • Member of the Advisory Board of the Palgrave Series in Victims and Victimology (book series)
    • Member of the Advisory Board of TEMIDA, published by the Victimological Society of Serbia 
    • Member of the International Advisory Board of Restorative Justice
    • Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the European Journal of Policing Studies
    • Member of the Editorial Board of Déviance et Société
    • Member of the Editorial Board of the Security Journal
    • Member of the International Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences
    • Member of the International Board of the Journal Internationale de Victimologie
    • Member of the International Advisory Board of the Archiwumkryminologii (Archives of Criminology), published by the Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Science
    • Member of the Editorial Board for ScienceRise: Juridical Science journal, Ukraine
  • Professor Layla Skinns - 
    • Editorial Board of the British Journal of Criminology (2017-present)
    •  Advisory Board Member for the European Journal of Policing Studies (2012- present)
    • International Associate Board Member for Incarceration (2019-present)
  • Dr Adam White - Editorial Board Member of the British Journal of Criminology and Security Journal

Advisory positions

  • Dr Matt Bacon - N8 PRP
  • Jim Chamberlain - Trustee of the charity Philosophy in Prison
  • Dr Jane Dominey - 
    • Member of the Probation Institute Graham Smith Award Panel
    • Probation Institute Academic Advisory Panel
  • Dr David Hayes -  Research ethics advisor for a project based at the University of Nottingham called "RECEDE: REgulating Criminal justicE DEtention: Glocal Prospects for Improving Health and Safety in Detention and Society" (PI: Philippa Tomczak, funded by an ECR Starter Grant, Action No 949289)
  • Professor Jesse Matheson - Panel Member, National Residential Burglary Task Force
  • Professor Gwilym Pryce - Member of the Evidence Based Policing Avisor Board, South Yorkshire Police
  • Professor Joanna Shapland - 
    • U.K. representative on the Comite de Groupement of GERN (Groupe Européen de Recherche sur les Normativités).
    • Member of the International Advisory Board of the South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology
    • Chair, Restorative Justice Forum (Scotland)
    • Member of Stakeholder Group for the Scottish Government re the implementation of the Restorative Justice Action Plan
    • Member of the academic group advising the researchers of the Ministry of Justice, England and Wales
    • Member of the Research Advisory Group of the Restorative Justice Council for England & Wales
    • Member of the Advisory Group for the Interfaith Restorative Justice Project, a collaboration between Faith & Belief Forum, Why Me? and Interfaith Glasgow
  • Professor Layla Skinns - 
    • National Police Chief's Council police custody lead's working group on voluntary interviews
    • South Yorkshire Police Evidence-Based Advisory Board (2023-present)
    • Research advisory group member (2022-2026) for Professor Philippa Tomczak's ERC-funded Regulating Detention project
    • Research advisory group member (2022-2026) for Dr Gethin Rees ESRC-funded project 'Equivalence in police custody healthcare'
    • Research advisory group member (2023-2026) for Dr Vicky Kemp and Dr Miranda Bevan's Nuffield Foundation-funded project 'Piloting a Child First Approach in police custody'
  • Dr Angela Sorsby - Crown Prosecution Service's Disproportionality Advisory Group
  • Professor Gwen Robinson - 
    • Editorial Advisory Group for the Howard Journal of Crime and Justice
    • Probation Institute Academic Advisory Panel

Consultancy

The Centre for Criminological Research and it's individual members undertake consultancy work for government, civil society and international organisations. Members also undertake pro bono work, contributing to the boards of charities and a wide range of other groups and organisations.

For enquires regarding contract and consultancy services, please contact the Centre Director, Professor Layla Skinns (l.skinns@sheffield.ac.uk).