Our aim
The Centre for Crime, Justice and Security aims for the promotion, development and implementation of justice in various forms. Work primarily focuses on criminal justice and how social justice impacts and is impacted by criminal justice practices. The work we do with our communities aims to enrich and transform lives and to positively impact on policy and practice in wider social and criminal justice environments.
The Centre is underpinned by three pillars:
All our activities including research, professional training and practice, and enterprise and innovation will uphold the values of ethical best practice and integrity
The Centre develops solutions to real world problems that are financially and environmentally sustainable in the long term
All of our activities are underpinned by current and relevant research
The Centre is driven by solving global challenges through national and international collaborations and impacting on policy and practice at a global level. Working closely with the Staffordshire Forensic Partnership and Institute of Policing, we are able to have a positive impact on practice and feed into national initiatives such as Transforming Forensics. Our work promotes our students and staff as agents of positive change and disruptive innovators
The Centre contributes to the reduction of crime at local, regional, national and international level through crime prevention activities, improvements in crime detection approaches, developments in approaches to the rehabilitation of offenders, improving access to justice and training the practitioners in best practice.
The Centre aims to improve access to justice in the region outside the criminal justice system through the expansion of the law clinic model, in order to improve the lives of communities and individuals.
Our research involves many areas of criminology, forensic science and policing, including developing new and innovative methods for combatting crime at a national and international level. The Centre is organised into four main themes:
- Investigation, Security and Intelligence
- Crime, Justice and Communities
- Professional Education, Regulation and Standards
- Evidence Based Policing
Areas of expertise within each theme are diverse and both inter and multi-disciplinary.
The Centre houses four thriving research groups that work collaboratively across the University and with external partners on particular areas of interest. They include:
- Crime and Society Research Group
- Staffordshire University Forensic Canine Research and Development Group
- Burial Research Group
- Microplastics and Forensic Fibres Research Group