Dr Elaine Campbell
Reader in Criminology

Roles and Responsibilities

Director of Postgraduate Research (Sociology)

Qualifications

B.A., University of Plymouth, Social Policy and Administration, 1989
Cert.Ed., University of Exeter, 1990
Ph.D., University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Criminology, 2000

Memberships

European Society of Criminology
European Sociological Association
ESA Sociology of Culture Research Network

Funding and Awards (since 2000)

ESRC Impact Grant Award £5,000.00, Nov 2007 to Feb 2009. Funds secured to host a one-day conference, Rethinking Confidence in the Criminal Justice System: Alternative Perspectives on Public Understandings - 13 November 2008, Research Beehive, Newcastle University. See www.ncl.ac.uk/niassh/Conifidence/index.htm

Knowledge Transfer Partnership in Criminal Justice funded by ESRC (50%) and Northumbria Criminal Justice Board (50%): £120,000, Sept 2006 - Sept 2009. Sole Investigator/Dr Ruth Graham is KTP Academic Support.

Clear Track: The CSV Virtual Young Offenders' Institution: Funded by CSV (£160,000). September 2005 to August 2009. Sole Investigator

Criminal Justice and `Customer Satisfaction' within Black and Minority Ethnic Communities funded by Northumbria Local Criminal Justice Board/Criminal Justice System Race Unit Challenge Fund: £11,175.00, Jan 2007 - Sept 2007. Sole Investigator.

South Tyneside Mentoring Scheme. Funded by South Tyneside Youth Offending Team (£7,588). January 2003 to June 2003. Principal Investigator.

Early Intervention Follow-up Study: Funded by Gateshead Youth Offending Team (£4,467). October 2002 to January 2003 (Co-investigator with Dr Robin Humphrey)

Second Regional Evaluation of the Youth Inclusion Programme: The Northern Region. Funded by the Youth Justice Board (£71,500). March 2002 to March 2003 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson and Dr Robin Humphrey).

Regional Evaluation of the Youth Inclusion Programme: The Northern Region. Funded by the Youth Justice Board (£120,000). July 2000 to March 2002 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson and Dr Robin Humphrey).

Pathways to Youth Crime Reduction. Funded by Sunderland City Council and Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (£160,000). April 2000 to March 2002 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson, Dr Robin Humphrey and Dr Robert Hollands).

Bail Support Evaluation. Funded by Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (£12,000). April 2000 to March 2002 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson, Dr Robin Humphrey and Dr Robert Hollands).

Early Intervention. Funded by Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (£52,000). April 2001 to March 2002 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson and Dr Robin Humphrey).

Substance Misuse Amongst High Risk Populations of Young People. Funded by the Northumberland Health Action Zone (£39,609). December 2000 to September 2001 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson and Dr Robert Hollands).

Northumbria Police Community and Race Relations Audit. Research Consultant for Northumbria Police (£500). July 2000 to September 2000. Audit published in Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC) (2000) Winning the Race: Embracing Diversity. London: HMSO

Youth Crime Audit: City of Gateshead. Funded by Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (£5,000). April 2000 to May 2000 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson, Dr Robin Humphrey and Dr Robert Hollands).

 

Research Interests

My current publishing, dissemination and writing connects my theoretical and methodological interests in cultural studies with the core concerns of criminology as a discipline. These interests centre on:

  • Theoretical debates within post-critiques of the sociology of crime and punishment; cultural criminology; visual sociology; theories of discourse and media; epistemology; the sociology of emotion; cultural studies
  • Epistemological and methodological innovations in qualitative methodologies; critical discourse and    representational analysis; visual methodologies; participatory action research
  • Substantive issues related to public understandings of criminal justice; youth crime and youth justice; policing; law and governance; social justice and citizenship; community safety; penal policy; surveillance and risk; popular culture and media; the emotionsand aesthetics of crime; the ethics of punishment;

I have additional interests in developing ideas associated with:

  • sociology of art
  • literary theory
  • aesthetics
  • poststructuralism

Current Work

see also criminaljusticeresearch.ncl.ac.uk/index.htm

Rethinking Confidence in the Criminal Justice System: Alternative Perspectives in Public Understandings: funded by an ESRC Impact Grant: £5,000.00 November 2007 to Feb 2009. A one-day conference at Newcastle University which explores contemporary ways of rethinking `confidence’, and will introduce a range of alternative perspectives on how `confidence’ may be conceptualised, measured and applied to questions of criminal justice. The conference is targetted to meet the needs and concerns of an audience of criminal justice professionals and policy-makers responsible for developing national, regional and local strategies for improving levels of public confidence. See also - www.ncl.ac.uk/niassh/Confidence/index.htm

Knowledge Transfer Partnership in Criminal Justice funded by ESRC (50%) and Northumbria Criminal Justice Board (50%): £120,000, Sept 2006 - Sept 2009. Public Confidence in Criminal Justice in the North East of England: This research creates a grounded understanding of public confidence in the services delivered by the statutory criminal justice agencies in the north east region. The study explores how the phenomenon of `confidence' is talked about, experienced and evaluated by members of the public, and how this compares to its conceptualisation and operationalisation in current criminal justice policy and practice. This 3 year study will produce a grounded, empirical knowledge-base of a heterogeneous (and contradictory) public discourse of confidence, which will be used as a resource for developing a series of methodological tools capable of measuring this complexity, and a communications strategy which responds effectively to it. This research study is the first KTP to be commissioned in the UK in the field of criminology/sociology . Sole Investigator.

The Virtual Prison Study funded by CSV: £160,000, September 2005 to August 2009. Clear Track: The CSV Virtual Young Offenders' Institution: This research explores theories of risk and desistence from offending in the context of a process and impact study of an innovative pilot approach to the sentencing of young adult offenders in the north east of England, and is the first of its kind in the UK. Understood as a `third sentencing option', the virtual prison (Clear Track) is a hybrid of custodial and community-based punishment, sometimes referred to as community custody. Sole Investigator

Criminal Justice and `Customer Satisfaction' within Black and Minority Ethnic Communities: funded by the Northumbria Criminal Justice Board/Criminal Justice System Race Unit Challenge Fund: £11,175.00: January to September 2007. This research developed a contextual and qualitative understanding of `customer satisfaction' withinin BME communities in the north east of England by firstly, examining the relationship between lived experiences of criminal justice, and expressions of satisfaction (and dissatisfaction) with service delivery; and secondly, by positioning the concept of satisfaction within an emotional repertoire of criminal justice service quality and use, and to use this positioning to examine how satisfaction relates to other feelings such as trust, confidence, anger and frustration. The research made use of a participatory action research (PAR) approach in which members of BME communities acted as co-researchers and co-analysts of the study. The research findings have been used as a resource for the Northumbria CJB to develop strategies which address the `satisfaction gap', and to improve engagement with BME communities by exploring the potential transferability and applicability of the methodological approach.

 

Funding and Awards (since 2000)

ESRC Impact Grant Award £5,000.00, Nov 2007 to Feb 2009. Funds secured to host a one-day conference, Rethinking Confidence in the Criminal Justice System: Alternative Perspectives on Public Understandings - 13 November 2008, Research Beehive, Newcastle University. See www.ncl.ac.uk/niassh/Conifidence/index.htm

Knowledge Transfer Partnership in Criminal Justice funded by ESRC (50%) and Northumbria Criminal Justice Board (50%): £120,000, Sept 2006 - Sept 2009. Sole Investigator/Dr Ruth Graham is KTP Academic Support.

Clear Track: The CSV Virtual Young Offenders' Institution: Funded by CSV (£160,000). September 2005 to August 2009. Sole Investigator
Criminal Justice and `Customer Satisfaction' within Black and Minority Ethnic Communities funded by Northumbria Local Criminal Justice Board/Criminal Justice System Race Unit Challenge Fund: £11,175.00, Jan 2007 - Sept 2007. Sole Investigator.

South Tyneside Mentoring Scheme. Funded by South Tyneside Youth Offending Team (£7,588). January 2003 to June 2003. Principal Investigator.

Early Intervention Follow-up Study: Funded by Gateshead Youth Offending Team (£4,467). October 2002 to January 2003 (Co-investigator with Dr Robin Humphrey)

Second Regional Evaluation of the Youth Inclusion Programme: The Northern Region. Funded by the Youth Justice Board (£71,500). March 2002 to March 2003 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson and Dr Robin Humphrey).

Regional Evaluation of the Youth Inclusion Programme: The Northern Region. Funded by the Youth Justice Board (£120,000). July 2000 to March 2002 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson and Dr Robin Humphrey).

Pathways to Youth Crime Reduction. Funded by Sunderland City Council and Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (£160,000). April 2000 to March 2002 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson, Dr Robin Humphrey and Dr Robert Hollands).

Bail Support Evaluation. Funded by Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (£12,000). April 2000 to March 2002 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson, Dr Robin Humphrey and Dr Robert Hollands).

Early Intervention. Funded by Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (£52,000). April 2001 to March 2002 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson and Dr Robin Humphrey).

Substance Misuse Amongst High Risk Populations of Young People. Funded by the Northumberland Health Action Zone (£39,609). December 2000 to September 2001 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson and Dr Robert Hollands).

Northumbria Police Community and Race Relations Audit. Research Consultant for Northumbria Police (£500). July 2000 to September 2000. Audit published in Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC) (2000) Winning the Race: Embracing Diversity. London: HMSO

Youth Crime Audit: City of Gateshead. Funded by Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (£5,000). April 2000 to May 2000 (Co-investigator with Professor Diane Richardson, Dr Robin Humphrey and Dr Robert Hollands).

Conference papers since 2007

Campbell, Elaine (2011) ‘Rancière, the right to a fair trial and an aesthetics of difference’. Abstract accepted for presentation to the Intersections of Law and Culture Conference 2011, Franklin College, Lugano, Swizerland. 23-25 September 2011

Campbell, Elaine (2011) `Encountering monsters at the boundaries of culture: excess, transgression and the limit-experience’. Abstract accepted for presentation to the Rethinking the Monstrous: Violence and Criminality in Society Conference, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. 1-3 July 2011

Campbell, Elaine (2011) ‘Law, literary culture(s) and a politics of aesthetics’. Paper presented at ‘The Letter of the Law: Law Matters in Language and Literature’, 8th International Conference of the Hellenic Association for the Study of English. University of Athens. Greece. 5-8 May 2011

Campbell, Elaine (2011) ‘Spaces of desecration: performing the city and choreographing the urban’. Paper presented at the Asian Conference on Cultural Studies. Osaka, Japan. 23-25 March 2011

Campbell, Elaine (2011) ‘The transgressive edge of everyday life: performing the city; choreographing the urban’. Abstract accepted for presentation to the 1st Global Conference on Urban Popcultures. Prague. Czech Republic, 5-8 March 2011. Withdrawn due to poor organisation and communication from conference committee.

Campbell, Elaine (2010) ‘The poetics of international human rights: multiculturalism as dramaturgy and theatre’. Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Multicultural Discourses. Institute of Discourse and Cultural Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, 27-29 August 2010

Campbell, Elaine (2010) ‘Law, popular culture(s) and the politics of aesthetics’. Paper accepted for presentation at the XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology, Research Committee 12 [Sociology of Law] Panel/Session 7, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 11-17 July 2010

Campbell Elaine (2010) ‘Catastrophic crime(s) and the reinvention of national identities’. Paper presented at the Constructing Crime: Discourse and Cultural Representations of Crime and Deviance Conference. University of Leeds, UK, 30 March 2010

Campbell, E (2009) ‘Reading-writing autopsy: a dirty theory of the science of death’. Invited speaker at Technology, Death and the Cultural Imagination Seminar. Centre for Cultural Studies Research, University of East London, UK, 30 October 2009

Campbell, E (2009) ‘Public sphere as assemblage: assembling political cultures’. Paper presented at the 9th European Sociological Association Conference. University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2-5 September 2009

Campbell E (2009) ‘Collective memory, assemblage and catastrophic events’. Paper presented at the 9th European Sociological Association Conference. University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2-5 September 2009

Campbell E (2009) ‘Dreadful landscapes: stalking as choreography’. Paper presented at the International Visual Sociology Association Conference. (IVSA 2009). University of Carlisle, UK, 22-24 July 2009

Campbell E (2009) Chair of Panel ‘Exploring gendered dimensions of place’, organised for the International Visual Sociology Association Conference. (IVSA 2009). University of Carlisle, UK, 22-24 July 2009

Campbell E (2009) `Justice in the risk society: Barthes goes to Hollywood’. Paper presented at the Managing the Social Impacts of Change from a Risk Perspective. Conference funded by CASS/RCUK/ESRC, Beijing Normal University, People’s Republic of China. 15-17 April 2009.

Campbell, E (2008) `Empowering the citizens by putting people in their place’. Paper presented at Rethinking Confidence in the Criminal Justice System. Conference funded by an ESRC Impact Grant. Newcastle University, UK, 13 November 2008

Campbell, E (2008) `The counterpublic sphere of comedy: a Bakhtinian perspective’. Paper presented at the 8th European Society of Criminology Conference. Conference Theme: on Criminology and the Public Sphere, University of Edinburgh, UK, 2-5 September 2008

Campbell, E (2008) `A carnival of justice’ Paper presented at the International Conference on Justice and Policing in Diverse Societies, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, to be held at the University of San Juan, Puerto Rico, 9-12 June 2008

Campbell, E (2008) `Powers of life and death in the governance of affect’ Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Social Theory Forum, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA, 16-17 April 2008

Campbell E (2008) Chair of Panel `Media and the criminal justice system: mutual pressures and interdependencies:’ organised for the Justice, Media and Public Conference. Keele University, UK, 28-29 February 2008

Campbell E (2007) Chair of Panel `Understanding Communities’ organised for the European Society of Criminology Conference. University of Bologna, Italy, 26 to 29 September 2007

Campbell E (2007) `Public Confidence as an Emotionality of Rule’ Paper presented at the Stockholm Criminology Symposium. University of Stockholm, Sweden, 4 to 6 June 2007

Research Roles

Founder and Convenor of the Critical Visual and Discourse Research Cluster, Newcastle University, 2008-2010 (disbanded October 2010; relaunched as the Visualities Research Group, January 2011)

Convenor of Visualities Research Group, Newcastle University since 2011 

Postgraduate Supervision

I am interested in supervising good and innovative proposals in all aspects of criminology, and especially welcome applications in the following areas:

Any aspect of criminological theory, epistemology and methodology; cultural perspectives on criminological topics, including questions of emotionality and aesthetics Discourse, visual and media analysis The structures and processes of crime and punishment; law and governance; surveillance and risk Work which develops a post-critique of modernist criminological theorising and research.

I am currently supervising 5 PhD research theses: Liz Turner - Reimagining Criminology's Public Role: An Inquiry into the Relationship between Criminological Expertise and the Democratic Public Sphere (NCJB/ESRC funded); Pete Steggals - A Sociology of Self-Harm (ESRC 1+3); Will McGovern - A Social Captial Perspective of Drug Services User-Involvement (NHS-funded); Lauren Powell - NE1 Using This Space (ESRC 1+3); Clare Fearon - The Cultural Politics of Political Correctness (self-funded)

Doctorates recently completed: Danna-Mechelle Lewis (2011) The Risk Factor: An Exploratory Study into the Assessment of Risk within Criminal Justice Practice (CSV-funded); Rachela Colosi (2009) Undressing the Moves: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Lap-Dancer (ESRC 1+3); Ruth McGovern (2010) A Non-Traditional Ethnography of Drug Users in the North East of England (self-funded);

Esteem Indicators

Review Editor for Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal

Industrial Relevance

  • criminal justice policy
  • crime control
  • surveillance and security industries
  • law enforcement
  • law reform
  • community safety
  • public understandings of criminal justice
  • political and visual cultures of crime, criminality and justice

Projects

Undergraduate Teaching

SOC1026: Making Sense of Society/Transgression
SOC2060: Research Workshop in Visual Methodologies
SOC2074: Spectacle, Image and Media: The Sociology of Visual Cultures
SOC3064: Crime, Culture and Society

Postgraduate Teaching

SOC8033 Specialist Study in Visual Methodologies