Dr Matt Hopkins

I joined the School in January 2011 and I have a PhD entitled 'Abuse and Violence Against Small Businesses'. I have published in high quality journals such as the British Journal of Criminology, the International Review of Victimology, Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Security Journal and have been involved in a number of applied research projects and evaluations of national government programmes. My work spans a variety of areas in relation to violent crime, crime prevention,  commercial victimisation and organised crime.

I am Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and  Violence Hub lead in the Centre for Hate Studies:

https://le.ac.uk/hate-studies/our-hubs/violence-reduction-hub

I also co-chair the University REF Mirror group. 

I am a member of the Home Office Commercial Victimisation Study steering group and a Research Fellow of the Security Institute. I also sit on the editorial board of the Security Journal and Trends in Organized Crime. 

My research interests span a variety of areas including organised crime, commercial victimisation, acid attacks and crime investigation. My main interest is in the ecosystems of crime, how we can prevent crime and the types of interventions that work to reduce crime.

Recent publications include: 

Home Office Report (2025): Progression of cases submitted by the police to the CPS for charging decisions - GOV.UK

Journal article: Prisons as Ecosystems of Organised Crime. Criminology and Criminal Justice (2025) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/17488958251348051

Policy briefing: Corrosive Attacks: Preventing acid attacks and corrosive substance crime. Leicester Institute for Policy Briefing paper (2025): Online link

Journal article: Organised Crime and the ecosystems of sexual exploitation in the United Kingdom: How supply and demand generate sexual exploitation and protection from prosecution. Trends in Organized Crime (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-023-09517-x

Blog: Acid attacks appear to be on the rise - what the numbers tell us about corrosive substances and crime (The Conversation – 6^th February, 2024) https://theconversation.com/acid-attacks-appear-to-be-on-the-rise-what-the-numbers-tell-us-about-corrosive-substances-and-crime-222792

Blog: How do we put the ‘Public Health’ into violence Reduction? https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/criminology/tag/matt-hopkins/

Book: Acid Crime - Context, Motivation and Prevention: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030622954 

Hopkins, M. (forthcoming 2022). Researching active offenders. In J.C. Barnes and David R. Forde. The Encyclopaedia of Research Methods and Statistical Techniques in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Wiley: New Jersey.

Hopkins, M. (forthcoming, 2022) Business resilience to crime: The harms of crime, security and crime tolerance. In M, Gill. Handbook of Security Vol 3.

Hopkins, M., Neville, L. and Sanders, T. (2021). Acid Crime: Context, Motivation and Prevention. Palgrave MacMillan. Link to Acid Crime Book

Koeppen, B., Hopkins, M. (2021) Security guards as victims of violence: using organisational support theory to understand how support for victims could have positive implications for the security industry. Security  Journal 34, 824 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41284-020-00262-2

Hopkins, M. (2019) Business face higher rates of Victimisation than Households or individuals. In J, Treadwell & A. Lynes. 50 Facts everyone should know about crime and punishment in Britain. Bristol, Polity Press pp. 41-43

Hopkins, M., Shelton, N. Identifying Money Laundering Risk in the United Kingdom: Observations from National Risk Assessments and a Proposed Alternative Methodology. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 25, 63–82 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-018-9390-5

Hopkins, M. & Chivers, S. (2019) Theorizing hit-and-run: A Study of Driver Decision Making Processes after a Road Traffic Collision. Criminology and Criminal Justice. 19(1):45-61. https://cms2.le.ac.uk/sitecore/shell/Controls/Rich%20Text%20Editor/DOI%2010.1057/s41300-017-0036-1

Organised Crime (Undergraduate year 2 option module)

Research Methods (Undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD). 

I have made numerous appearances in the media. Recent examples include:

• BBC Newsnight BBC2 - 1st February 2024 to talk about the recent corrosive substance attack in Clapham, South London (presented by Kate Lamble).
• Talk Radio – 28^th February 2024 – ‘Acid attacks’ on the Petrie Hosken show at 10pm.