Prof Loraine Gelsthorpe

Dr 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.

Dr 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 the British Society of Criminology’s Ethics Committee.

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.