Nigel Walker Lecture
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. |
Past recordings | |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Professor Lesley McAra - Justice in an Age of Unreason: Why Criminology Matters |
| 2024 | Professor Daniel Nagin - Guardianship, Reactive and Preventative |
| 2023 | Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe - Sen and Sensibility: Women, crime and sentencing |
| 2022 | Professor John Braithwaite - Macrocriminology and Freedom |
| 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? View thelecture |
| 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. View thelecture |
| 2014 | Professor Adrian Raine -The Biological Roots of Crime: Implications for Society and Criminology. View the lecture |
| 2013 | Professor Susanne Karstedt -Global Hot Spots of Violence: Exploring the Paradox of State Strength and Weakness. View thelecture |
| 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. |