The University of Birmingham Community and Criminal Justice Group: Established in 2008, The BCCJ Group began life by chance when two academic colleagues - one a forensic psychologist, the other a public management specialist - began talking to each other on their daily train commute into the University of Birmingham. Recognising the considerable, but much dispersed, expertise and interest in criminology, criminal law and justice across the Birmingham campus, for example, in the Schools of Law, Social Policy, Government and Society, Psychology, Economics and Medicine, the idea was to form a cross-campus and cross-disciplinary group to exchange ideas, develop joint research projects, organize conferences and other events together and, by working closer together, helping to highlight and promote Birmingham's exceptional expertise in the field of community and criminal justice. The initiative was strongly supported and driven forward by the efforts of Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Stephen Shute, who was then Director of Birmingham's Institute of Judicial Administration. Since then, the Group has hosted an annual conference for doctoral researchers and staff; it has encouraged and supported staff collaborations on various research bids, and most recently, it has provided the authorship for an edited book 'Whose Criminal Justice: State or Community?' (to be published in 2011 by Waterside Press). For further information on the Birmingham Community and Criminal Justice Group, please contact: Anthony Beech, Professor of Criminological Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, tel: 0121 414 7215 or
[email protected] or John W Raine, Professor of Management in Criminal Justice, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham, tel: 0121 414 5008 or
[email protected] or Andrew Sanders, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, School of Law, University of Birmingham, tel: 0121 414 6318 or
[email protected] or Basia Spalek, Reader in Communities and Justice, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, tel: 0121 414 8027 or
[email protected] Contributors Shamila Ahmed is a Doctoral Researcher in the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham. Anthony Beech is Director of the Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology and Professor of Criminal Psychology in the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. Mark Blandford is a Detective Constable with the Staffordshire Police Public Protection Unit and Associate of the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. John Child is a Lecturer in Law at Oxford Brookes University. He was a Doctoral Researcher and Postgraduate Teaching Assistant in the Law School, University of Birmingham. Katherine Doolin is Director of the Institute of Judicial Administration and Lecturer in the Law School, University of Birmingham. Jessica Elliott is a Lecturer in Law at the University of the West of England. She was a Doctoral Researcher and Postgraduate Teaching Assistant at the Law School, University of Birmingham. Kathryn Farrow is a Lecturer in the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham. Nathan Hughes is a Teaching and Research Fellow in the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham. Adrian Hunt is a Lecturer in the Law School, University of Birmingham. Paul Keasey is a Chief Inspector with West Midlands Police and Doctoral Researcher in the Institute of Local Government Studies, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham. Gill Kelly is an Independent Trainer at KWP and Associate of the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham. Zahira Latif is a Doctoral Researcher in the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham. Theresa Lynch is a Doctoral Researcher and Postgraduate Teaching Assistant in the Law School, University of Birmingham. David Prior is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham. John Raine is Professor of Management in Criminal Justice and Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham. Andrew Sanders is Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology in the Law School, University of Birmingham. Basia Spalek is a Reader in Communities and Justice in the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham. Bernadette Wilkinson is an Independent Trainer at KWP and Associate of the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham.
