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Institute of Criminology

 

The Nigel Walker Lecture series was inaugurated in 1997, and is named in honour of the Institute's second Director, Nigel Walker, who served as Wolfson Professor of Criminology from 1973 to 1984. This is an annual lecture given by an eminent criminologist.

The Nigel Walker - Biography

Nigel Walker, who died on 13 September 2014, was the second Wolfson Professor of Criminology (1973-1984) at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of King’s College; he was also Director of the Institute of Criminology from 1973-1981. Prior to coming to Cambridge he was Reader in Criminology in the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Nuffield College (1961- 1973); in Oxford he also founded the Penal Research Unit (now the Centre for Criminology).

Nigel Walker was a key figure in the development of criminology as an academic discipline in the United Kingdom. He also made distinguished research contributions, particularly in the fields of sentencing and of policy for mentally disordered offenders; and he is remembered by many former students as an outstanding teacher.


2023 Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe - Sen and Sensibility:  Women, crime and sentencing

The lecture can be viewed here

2022

Professor John Braithwaite - Macrocriminology and Freedom

The lecture can be viewed here

2021 This lecture was cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions
2020

This lecture was cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions

2019

Dr Claudia García-Moreno - Understanding and Addressing Violence Against Women as a Public Health Problem. 

Lecture recording and the slides

2018

Professor Manuel Eisner - Creating More Peaceful Societies: Global Strategies to reduce Interpersonal Violence by 50% in 2040.

View the lecture

2017

Professor Candace Kruttschnitt - Challenging a Gender Response Approach to Female Offending: Does the Empirical Research Bear Out this Perspective?

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2016

Professor John Braithwaite - Restorative Justice: Niches in War Prevention, Crime Prevention.

2015

Professor Peter Reuter - Drug Policy and the Public Good: Legalization and its Limits. 

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2014

Professor Adrian Raine - The Biological Roots of Crime: Implications for Society and Criminology. 

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2013

Professor Susanne Karstedt - Global Hot Spots of Violence: Exploring the Paradox of State Strength and Weakness. 

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2012

Professor Per-Olof Wikström - Breaking Rules: Exploring and explaining the causes of young people’s crime.

2011

Professor Richard E. Tremblay - Origins, Development and Prevention of Chronic Physical Aggression: From Criminology to Obstetrics and Epigenetics.

2010

Professor Alison Liebling - Distinctions and Distinctiveness in the Work of Prison Officers: Legitimacy and Authority Revisited.

2009

Professor Robert Sampson - The Immigration & Diversity Debate: Insight from Criminology.

2007

Professor Friedrich Lösel - Developmental Prevention and Offender Treatment: What Does the Evidence Show?

2006

Professor David P Farrington - The Development of Offending and Antisocial Behaviour from Childhood to Adulthood.

2005

Professor Nicola Lacey - The Criminal Jurisprudence of H.L.A. Hart.

2004

Professor Franklin Zimring - Toward a Comparative Law and Criminology of Corruption.

2003

Professor Andrew von Hirsch - Penalising Offensive Behaviour.

2002

Professor Andrew Ashworth - Reassessing Robbery.

2001

Professor Anthony Duff - Crime, Prohibition, and Punishment.

2000

Professor Michael Tonry - Interactions between Crime Rates and Criminal Policies across Space and Time.

1999

Professor Sir Anthony Bottoms - Criminology and the Problem of Order.

1998

Professor Stanley Cohen - The Sociology of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering.

1997

Professor David Garland - 'Governmentality' and the Problem of Crime: Foucault, Criminology, Sociology.