Criminology

Samantha is a graduate of Staffordshire University, Keele University and the University of Manchester. She has a BA(hons) in Law and Accounting, a MA in Criminology and a MRes in Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies. She is currently writing up her PhD thesis which will be submitted in June 2012.

Before coming to Keele University Samantha worked as a Research Associate for 8 years at the National Drug Evidence Centre, University of Manchester. Here she was involved in a number of Home Office and Department of Health funded research projects and had a leading role in the largest UK evaluation of drug treatment to date – The Drug Treatment and Outcomes Research Study (DTORS). Samantha has also worked as a field researcher for Matrix Knowledge and a Research Associate for the University of Birmingham.

Samantha’s research interests fall within the broad area of substance misuse, focusing specifically on treatment interventions and criminal justice responses to drug misuse. Examining the effects of medicalisation and subsequent criminalisation of drug policy, her PhD research focuses on the consequences of being labelled as an ‘addict’ on treatment progression, examining experiences of stigma among drug users and also the role of the health professional as a guardian of social control and the dilemmas this elicits. Samantha is particularly interested in the social exclusion and marginalisation of drug users and the effects this has on treatment progression and recovery.

• Research Methods in Criminology
• Drugs: High Crimes and Misdemeanors
• Policing and the Police
• Criminal Justice: Process, Policy and Practice