Centre for Criminology

Our academic staff frequently feature within the wider press and media. Below are some examples of their latest appearances: 

• Read the Essex news article Professor Nigel South to retire after almost 50 years association with Essex
• Read the Essex news article Countering regional Italian Mafia expansion (CRIME) report helps battle against mafias across Europe
• Read the Essex news article which explores Students' work supports prisoners facing Death Row 
• Read The Conversation article by Dr Katerina Hadjimatheou on Relationship between big tech and policing is shielded behind commercial confidentiality – it’s a problem
• Read The Conversation article by Dr Anna Di Ronco on What happened when Italy criminalised environmental protest
• Read the article and listen to the podcast on CBC Radio True Crime Bloodline: Investigating our Murder Story Obsession, which features research by Dr Darren Thiel
• Watch the YouTube interview with Dr Alexandra Cox as she discusses her book Trapped in a Vice with Professor Alex Vitale
• Listen to the NPR interview Coronavirus Pandemic Creates Lucrative Opportunities For Organized Crime In Italy which features research by Dr Anna Sergi
• Read The Conversation article by Professor Pamela Cox on Why the courts and police should be held responsible for failing victims of crime
• Read the article Building a “Kinder” Justice System: Youth Experiences with Incarceration an interview with Dr Alexandra Cox by Zhandarka Kurti in the Abolition Journal
• Read the news article Independent report calls for the Victims’ Commissioner to have enhanced powers to ensure agencies are held to account on the Victims Commissioner website which features research by Professor Pamela Cox
• Listen to the BBC Radio 4 Programme The Scandal Machine which features research by Professor Chris Greer
• Read the BSC Policing Network blog post Getting the ethics right in police technology projects by Dr Kat Hadjimatheou
• Read the Financial Times article How the Mafia infiltrated Italy’s hospitals and laundered the profits globally which features research by Dr Anna Sergi
• Read the the article People-first language matters. So does the rest of the story on the Marshall Project website which features research by Dr Alexandra Cox

At Essex we take the sociological approach to studying crime and deviance to answer questions such as: why are laws made? why are these laws subsequently broken? what can be done about it? why is society fascinated with crime?

One aspect of criminology is to focus on the individual, but here at Essex we take a much broader perspective and research criminology from the social perspective. Our teaching is research based and engaged with the real world.

Teaching and the Centre

Explore our unique offer for UG and PG courses in criminology:

• BA in Criminology
• BA Sociology and Criminology
• BA in Criminology with Social Psychology
• BA Criminology with Criminal Law
• BA Criminology with Counselling Skills
• If you are a UG student, you can volunteer at the Death Penalty Sentencing Mitigation Unit at the Human Rights Centre, which our member Alexandra Cox runs in partnership with Reprieve.
• MA in Criminology
• MSc Organised Crime Terrorism and Security
• MSc Criminology and Socio-Legal Research
• MA Sociology and Criminology
• Integrated Master in Sociology: Criminology
  This initiative involves an agreement with Essex police to provide primary data and support to a selected number of MA students to produce original research on key policing priority areas with real impact.

Why we are great:

Top 30 for criminology in UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025).

Our textbook

Criminology: A Sociological Introduction - 4th edition By Eamonn Carrabine, Alexandra Cox, Pamela Cox, Isabel Crowhurst, Anna Di Ronco, Pete Fussey, Anna Sergi, Nigel South, Darren Thiel, Jackie Turton

"One of the strengths of this text and what distinguishes it from many market competitors is that the authors are scholars of international distinction who do groundbreaking research and don’t just report on it. They know their field and this allows them to avoid some of tropes and clichés encountered in other textbooks. And if you are looking for an introduction to criminology that avoids a lot of the parochialism of other texts, this is the one to read, with each new edition increasingly global in scale and ambition."

John Scott, Professor, School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

"Criminology: A Sociological Introduction continues to be one of the most accessible, engaging and stimulating Criminology textbooks on the market. Now in its fourth edition, this book takes students through the most important socio-criminological issues of our time and is a resource that they will return to throughout their degree studies."

Yvonne Jewkes, Professor of Criminology, Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of Bath, UK

Our lecturers and their areas of supervision:

• Eamonn Carrabine is a professor of sociology at the University of Essex, where his teaching and research interests lie in the fields of criminology, cultural studies and sociology more generally.
  Areas of supervision: Crime and the Media; Cultural and Social Geography; Popular Music and Sociological Thinking; Punishment and Human Rights; Sociology of Imprisonment; Visual Sociology; Youth Culture
• Alexandra Cox is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex. Her research interests lie in the consequences of confinement for young people and in the role of mercy in the lives of people sentenced to extreme prison sentences.
  Areas of supervision: Youth justice; Racism, crime and punishment; Penal ethics; Mercy and equitable discretion; Arts and imprisonment; 'Street level' bureaucrats and the criminal justice system
• Pamela Cox is a professor specialising in criminal justice history, social history and gender. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary ESRC project on victims’ access to justice in English criminal courts over three centuries.
  Areas of supervision: modern social and cultural history; social policy, social justice and criminal justice; gender relations; youth justice, child rights, family law
• Isabel Crowhurst is a senior lecturer, and her main research is concerned with the construction and socio-legal treatment of non-normative sexual practices and intimate lives, and how they are negotiated and made sense of in everyday lived experiences.
  Areas of supervision: Gender and sexuality; Sex work and sex industry studies; The intersection of sexual and economic citizenship; Fiscal sociology and critical taxation studies; Comparative methods and psycho-social methodologies
• Anna Di Ronco is a senior lecturer in criminology. Her main research interests lie in regulation, representation and enforcement regarding urban incivilities, and in the use of social media by criminalized environmental movements.
  Areas of supervision: Regulation and social control of uncivil behaviour; Criminalisation of sex work; Urban policing; Criminalisation of environmental protest; Non-science-based medical practices and their social harm
• Pete Fussey is a professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex. His main research interests focus on surveillance, digital sociology, human rights, control and the city, and he has published widely across these areas.
  Areas of supervision: Surveillance and society; Digital Sociology; Security and the city; Terrorism and counter-terrorism; Urban sociology; Resilience and climate change; Informal and criminal economies; Human trafficking

• Chris Greer is Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research (Designate) and Professor of Sociology. His research and teaching interests are in the broad areas of: Crime, media and criminal justice; Sociology of media and communication; Victimology; Punishment and penality; Criminological theory.
  Areas of supervision: Trial by Media; Scandal; Serious Youth Violence; Victimology; Celebrity
• Kat Hadjimatheou is a lecturer in criminology. Her areas of expertise include police ethics, surveillance technologies, data-driven policing, domestic abuse and human trafficking.
  Areas of supervision: Police ethics, security surveillance, data, use of algorithms, security technologies and AI, predictive policing, criminal records, preventive policing, human trafficking, domestic abuse
• Johanna Römer is a lecturer, and her research examines how state power and political authority are produced through the everyday interactions and experiences of persons working within and subject to criminal justice institutions.
  Areas of supervision: Sociology of punishment, political and legal anthropology, urban ethnography, race, ethnicity and justice, law and human rights, gender violence, violence and social media
• Anna Sergi is a senior lecturer. Her specialism is in organised crime, mafia studies, and comparative criminal justice.
  Areas of supervision: organised crime; mafia studies; criminal mobility; white-collar crime; illicit trafficking; cross-border policing; corruption; power-crime nexus
• Carlos Solar is a lecturer in criminology. His research interests fit broadly under the areas of democratic governance; criminology, mostly on policing, corruption, and organised crime; and military studies.
  Areas of supervision: Armed Forces and Society; Criminal Policy; Cybersecurity and cyber defence; Policing; Security Governance; States and Organized Crime; Corruption
• Nigel South is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex. His research interests include environmental crime, green criminology and human rights; illegal and legal drug use; theoretical and comparative criminology; and public health and community services.
  Areas of supervision: environmental crime; green criminology and human rights; illegal and legal drug use and markets; crime, inequalities and citizenship; theoretical and comparative criminology; public health and community services
• Darren Thiel is a senior lecturer with research interests in public policy, criminal justice, policing and economic sociology.
  Areas of supervision: Social class and stratification; economic sociology; migration, globalisation and governance; globalisation and policing; policing terrorism; the criminal justice system; social policy

We have a vibrant intellectual community which we stimulate through regular events, organized throughout the academic year.

Showcasing expertise and cutting-edge research

We host three seminars per term and invite academics, third-sector organisations and practitioners to discuss topical issues relevant to the criminological field. Our events are open to all!

Highlights from our events

• The truth about modern slavery

• Coronavirus, class and mutual aid

• Imprisonment from young adulthood

• The end of policing

• Sex Work, Migration and Trafficking

• Beat Cops: What the Policing of UK Grime & Drill Music Teaches us about Police Racism in the UK

Follow us on Twitter: you will be updated on our research as well as on the inspiring events we organise throughout the academic year!