Public engagement

The School of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy is dedicated to engaging with wider society: going beyond traditional university boundaries to actively communicate, co-operate and collaborate with diverse local, regional, national, and international stakeholders.

We do this because we believe it to be mutually beneficial.

By engaging the world around us, we gain deeper insights into people’s thoughts, experiences, and priorities, thereby enabling us to conduct work that is timely, relevant, but more importantly, has the very real potential to directly benefit our stakeholders.

Our commitment extends to regular and routine engagement with government departments, policy-makers, criminal justice institutions (prisons, police, probation and prosecutors), healthcare authorities and staff, educational institutions, charities and third sector organisations, liberation and advocacy groups (LGBTQ+, Black, Disabled), community groups, businesses and private service providers (private prison providers and forensic science companies).

Our public engagement forms

• Delivering public lectures – our annual Scarman and Neustadt Lectures feature high profile guest speakers on current issues in criminology and sociology respectively. Running for more than a quarter of a century, today’s lectures are livestreamed to attendees across 30 countries worldwide.
• Producing audio and visual content – we create award-winning short films, such as Revisiting the Harms of Hate, alongside podcasts such as Hidden Hate.
• Supporting local community organising – we collaborate with Leicester and Leicestershire Citizens to support local stakeholders (community groups, schools and colleges, churches and mosques) to find solutions to local problems.
• Making media appearances – we contribute to both broadcast and print media including BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 4, and The Breakfast Show among others.
• Participating in festivals – we engage at national events (ESRC Festival of Social Science, Being Human Festival) and a local level (Leicester People’s University).
• Supporting the administration of justice – our colleagues provide expert testimony in a broad array of court cases.
• Shaping and informing policy – we contribute to various Non-Academic Steering Groups, Government, and Non-Government Committees and hold strategically important advisory roles, such as within UKDS, HMICFRS, Home Office.