Professor Joanna Shapland
School of Law
Edward Bramley Professor of Criminal Justice
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+44 114 222 6712
Full contact details
School of Law
EF00
Bartolomé House
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND
- Profile
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I started my academic career at Kings College London, researching mitigation in the criminal courts, before moving to the University of Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow and Research Fellow. At Oxford I directed the first major research on the experiences of victims in the criminal justice system, as well as looking at the public’s views of policing, and being Editor of the British Journal of Criminology. I acted as an expert to the Council of Europe and the United Nations.
Coming to Sheffield, I was first a research fellow, then Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor. I have continued my interest in victims, as Executive Editor of the International Review of Victimology and through advising governments in relation to criminal justice in England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as Victim Support Europe. I was a member of the Review of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland, following the Good Friday Agreement. I directed the national evaluation of restorative justice in England & Wales, which has shaped government policy on restorative justice in England & Wales and in Scotland, and have also worked with the General Council of the Bar and the Law Society on careers in the legal profession.
- Qualifications
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- M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon)
- Dip. Criminol. (Cantab)
- Chartered Forensic Psychologist
- Research interests
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My research interests span:
- Victimisation and victimology
- Restorative justice
- Desistance
- Comparative criminal justice
- Business and crime
Currently, I am engaged in research on the offending careers over 14 years of some English persistent offenders, as well as continuing to write about restorative justice in different countries and on police-academic partnerships.
On the Steering Group of the N8 Policing Research Partnership
Member of the Centre for Criminological Research Research Cluster
- Publications
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Books
Edited books
Journal articles
- Leslie Sebba – An appreciation. International Review of Victimology, 29(1), 150-152.
- The exclusion of serious and organised offenders and their victims from the offer of restorative justice: should this be so and what happens when the offer is put on the table?. Criminology and Criminal Justice.
- Fragile alliances: culture, funding and sustainability in police-academic partnerships. Evidence and Policy. View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- Herstelbemiddeling in twee gevangenissen: positieve effecten op stoppen met misdaad? (Recovery mediation in two prisons: positive effects on stopping crime?). Tijdschrift voor Herstelrecht, 17(4), 12-28. View this article in WRRO
- Introduction. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 37(7/8), 355-360. View this article in WRRO
- How Close are Formal and Informal Work?. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 37(7/8), 374-386. View this article in WRRO
- Using compliance with probation supervision as an interim outcome measure in evaluating a probation initiative. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 17(1), 40-61. View this article in WRRO
- Desistance from crime and restorative justice. Restorative Justice, 4(3), 302-322. View this article in WRRO
- In search of a research nirvana : what process for whom?. Restorative Justice, 5(1), 1-6.
- Forgiveness and Restorative Justice: Is It Necessary? Is It Helpful?. Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 5(1), 94-112. View this article in WRRO
- Can Persistent Offenders Acquire Virtue?. Studies in Christian Ethics, 27(3), 318-333. View this article in WRRO
- Understanding ‘quality’ in probation practice: Frontline perspectives in England & Wales. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 14(2), 123-142. View this article in WRRO
- Twenty volumes of victimology: The special issue. International Review of Victimology, 20(1), 3-5.
- Implications of growth: Challenges for restorative justice. International Review of Victimology, 20(1), 111-127.
- Doing ‘strengths-based’ research: Appreciative Inquiry in a probation setting. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 13(1), 3-20.
- Reflections on Social Values,Offending and Desistance Among Young Adult Recidivists. Punishment and Society, 13(3), 256-282.
- Social structures and desistance from crime. EUR J CRIMINOL, 7(6), 546-570.
- Does the informal economy link to organised crime?. International Journal of Social Economics, 35(9), 644-650.
- Reducing recidivism: A task for restorative justice?. British Journal of Criminology, 48(3), 337-358.
- Introduction. International Review of Victimology, 14(2), 171-173.
- Towards a Preference-Based Measure of the Impact on Well-Being Due to Victimisation and the Fear of Crime. International Review of Victimology, 14(2), 253-264.
- Staging restorative justice encounters against a criminal justice backdrop. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 7(1), 5-32.
- Constructing Victims' Rights: The Home Office, New Labour and Victims. Modern Law Review, 69(1), 135-140.
- Situating restorative justice within criminal justice. Theoretical Criminology, 10(4), 505-532.
- Introduction. British Journal of Criminology, 32(4), 401-402.
- Introduction: Why police?. British Journal of Criminology, 27(1), 1-3.
- An economic evaluation of restorative justice post-sentence in England and Wales. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1162286.
Chapters
- Experiencing Supervision in England—On Licence and on Community Sentences, Parole and Beyond (pp. 19-47). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- Monitoring and Evaluation of Restorative Justice, Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice (pp. 3144-3153). Springer New York
- International Responses to Victims in Criminal Justice, Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice (pp. 2632-2643). Springer New York
- Color and the Moving Image Routledge
Reports
Website content
- Research group
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Areas of Research Supervision
- Criminal justice
- Victimisation, victimology and victims in the criminal justice system
- Restorative justice
- Business and crime
- Offending, desistance and offending careers
- Grants
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Title/Description: Developing restorative policing: using the evidence base to inform the delivery of restorative justice and improve engagement with victims
The research is looking at provision of restorative justice to adult and young offenders in three police forces, both by police officers themselves and through referral to voluntary sector restorative justice providers, council community panels and Youth Offending Teams.
Drawing also on comparisons with Northern Ireland and Belgium, the results have led to consultation with the forces to introduce initiatives to increase the quality and quantity of restorative justice, particularly to meet victim needs.
- Awarding Body: Police Knowledge Fund (Home Office, HEFCE and College of Policing
- People Involved: Joanna Shapland and Emily Gray (University of Sheffield), Adam Crawford and Daniel Burn (University of Leeds)
- Years Funded for: 2015-2019
- Amount: Approx. £337,000
Title/Description: Evaluation of Restorative Justice Schemes (Crime Reduction Programme)
The project, directed by Professor Shapland, has evaluated three schemes, Justice Research Consortium, REMEDI and CONNECT, which were funded by the Ministry of Justice to run restorative justice schemes dealing with offenders within the criminal justice process.
The schemes included both adult and juvenile offenders and worked at all stages of criminal justice from pre-court to prison and probation sentences, using both conferencing and mediation.
The evaluation has followed the implementation of the schemes, interviewing offenders and victims, observing conferences, and looking at reconviction. It has fed directly into the government’s plans for the criminal justice system, as well as informing provision and policy in Scotland and Ireland.
- Awarding Body: Home Office/Ministry of Justice
- People Involved: Joanna Shapland (with Anne Atkinson, Helen Atkinson, Emily Colledge, James Dignan, Jeremy Hibbert, Marie Howes, Jennifer Johnstone, Gwen Robinson, and Angela Sorsby, together with Becca Chapman and Rachel Pennant of the Home Office, and NFO Europe Social Research)
- Years Funded for: 01/08/2001 to 30/06/2007
- Amount: Approx. £1,300,000
Title/Description: The Young Adult Desistance Study of the ESRC Cambridge Network on the Social Contexts of Paths in Crime (SCOPIC)
The main aim of the SCOPIC research network is to achieve a better understanding of pathways in and out of crime as a result of interactions between individual characteristics and behavioural contexts, and to assist in the development of improved public policies reducing criminality and enhancing individuals' life chances, particularly in disadvantaged urban areas.
SCOPIC, which was co-ordinated by the University of Cambridge (director, P-O Wikstrom), involved four UK sites, the Universities of Cambridge, Sheffield and Huddersfield and King's College London, as well as collaborating North American and European sites.
The Sheffield study, directed by Tony Bottoms and Joanna Shapland, is a longitudinal study of desistance by young adult offenders, selected from a probation based sample and followed for four years.
- Awarding Body: ESRC and subsequently The Leverhulme Trust
- People Involved: Anthony Bottoms and Joanna Shapland (with, at various times, Helen Atkinson, Andrew Costello, Deirdre Healy, Deborah Holmes and Grant Muir)
- Years Funded for: 01/10/2002 to date
- Amount: Approx. £417,000
- Teaching interests
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My research interests feed directly into my teaching. At undergraduate level, I teach an optional course on Restorative Justice, which draws from our major national evaluation of three big restorative justice schemes in England, as well as my work on restorative justice trends worldwide. I also lecture on research methods, as well as on the first year course Situating Crime, which looks at what crime happens where, to whom and is committed by whom – which involves my research on business and crime.
At postgraduate level, the module Responding to Crime in Europe looks at how different European countries are meeting the challenges of responding to crime, through prosecution and crime prevention, as well as their services for victims. I also teach on a course training police civilian investigators investigating vulnerabilities crimes, such as domestic abuse, child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
- Teaching activities
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The modules I teach are:
Undergraduate
- Restorative Justice (Convenor)
- Situating Crime
- Introducing Criminological Research
- Dissertation Preparation (BA Criminology)
Postgraduate and MA
- Responding to Crime in Europe (Convenor)
- Doing your Dissertation and Assessed Essays (Convenor)
- Dissertation (MAIC) (Convenor)
- Doctoral Training in Criminology and Law
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Chair, Restorative Justice Forum (Scotland)
- Outstanding achievement award, British Society of Criminology, 2013
- Executive Editor, International Review of Victimology