Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe - Biography

	Contact Details
	Room: 2.16
	Tel: +44 (0)1223 335377
	Email: lrg10@cam.ac.uk
	Go to: Research Abstract

University Professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Director of the MPhil Programmes in Criminology and Criminological Research

Fellow of Pembroke College.

Biography

Professor Gelsthorpe has carried out a number of research studies since the mid-1980s, including work on police decision-making with regard to juvenile offenders; the operation of multi-agency juvenile panels; the role of the Crown Prosecution Service in juvenile justice; gender issues in juvenile justice; the theory, policy and practice of attendance centres; the treatment of fine defaulters in magistrates’ courts; and race and gender issues in social inquiry reports. She has also conducted work on Home Office-funded projects on inter-agency aspects of crime prevention strategies, on pre-sentence reports, on the sentencing of women and on community service orders (now known as unpaid work) as a requirement of a Community Order.

Current research interests revolve around notions of criminal and social justice in sentencing, youth justice issues, women and criminal justice, the development of criminological and social theories in their social and political context since 1945, community penalties, and social exclusion, crime and justice. Empirical work includes a focus on resettlement issues for women – particularly those connected to housing. Loraine maintains a strong interest in methodological issues (particularly psychoanalytical dimensions of the research process).

Within the Institute she is Director of the M.Phil Programmes and within the University sits on the Board of Graduate Studies and University Education Committee.

Professor Gelsthorpe is a former ESRC Training Board Member and member of the 2008 RAE sub-panel on Social Policy and Social Work and Administration. She chairs the Cambridge Socio-legal Group and is President of the British Society of Criminology.

Publications include regular contributions to prestigious Oxford Handbook of Criminology (edited by Maguire, Morgan and Reiner) as well as over 150 articles on criminological and criminal justice related topics, book chapters, and reports.

The following publications may be of interest

• Women and Crime (1981),
• Gender Issues in Juvenile Justice (1985),
• Sexism and the Female Offender (1989),
• Feminist Perspectives in Criminology (1990),
• Minority Ethnic Groups in the Criminal Justice System (1993),
• Understanding the Sentencing of Women (1997),
• Community Penalties: Change and Challenges (2001) (edited with A.E.Bottoms and S.Rex),
• Exercising Discretion: decision-making in the criminal justice system and beyond (2003) (edited with N. Padfield),
• Back to Basics in Crime Control: Weaving in Women (2005),
• Sexuality Repositioned: Diversity and the Law (2005) (edited with B. Brooks-Gordon, M. Johnson and A. Bainham),
• Restorative Practices: Repairing Harm through Kith and Kin (2006) (with Dr. L. Skinns),
• Handbook of Probation (2007) (edited with R. Morgan),
• The Jack-Roller: Telling a Story? (2007),
• Provision for Women Offenders in the Community (2007) (with G. Sharpe and J. Roberts), and a
• Special Issue of Youth Justice. An International Journal on Girls, Young Women and Youth Justice, 9:3 (2009) (edited with G. Sharpe), in which the following article is featured: ‘Looking for Trouble: A Recent History of Girls, Young Women, and Youth Justice’, Youth Justice, 9:3, pp. 209-223 (2009) (with A. Worrall)
• 'What Works' with Women Offenders: The past 30 years (2009)(with A. Worrall)

with further books in the pipeline.