Leading criminologist Ian Loader to give lecture at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk

Feb 4 2010 by Michael Byrne, Ormskirk Advertiser

ONE of the UK’s leading criminologists will consider the condition of contemporary criminology through the questions which confront those involved in the fields of crime, security and punishment.

Professor Ian Loader will be coming to the Department of Law and Criminology at Edge Hill University for a public lecture, where he will discuss ‘Criminology's Public Roles: A Drama in Six Acts’.

Professor Loader is a Fellow of All Souls College and Director of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford, and a Research Associate at the Institute for Public Policy Research. His research interests include policing and security, public sensibilities towards crime and justice, and social and political theory.

His lecture will draw upon material from a his forthcoming book, Public Criminology?, which he has written with Professor Richard Sparks, Professor of Criminology at the University of Edinburgh.

The book asks the question ‘what is criminology for?’ and examines how its practitioners engage with politics and public policy in today’s world.

It reveals how criminologists have understood their craft and positioned themselves in relation to the controversies of their day – whether as analysts, advisors, consultants, fact-finders, muckrakers, or critics.

This forms the basis for a provocative account of the temptations and dilemmas that confront those who work in the fields of crime, security and punishment today.

The lecture will appeal to anyone who has an interest in crime, but also its relationship with the social sciences and politics.

Senior lecturer in law Peter Langford said: “This event promises to be a provocative overview of the state of contemporary criminology which is relevant to all those interested in the question of crime and its regulation.”

The event takes place on Wednesday, February 10 at 2pm in room B001 in the Business School and Law building.