Professor John Eck

John E. Eck is professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati.  He received his Ph.D. in criminology from the University of Maryland in 1994, writing his dissertation on drug dealing locations.  He also has a Master of Public Policy degree (1977) from the University of Michigan.  From 1977 to 1995, Eck directed research for the Police Executive Research Forum – a police chief membership and research organization – where he studied criminal investigation management, problem-oriented policing, and drug control strategies.  Following this he became the Evaluation Director for the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a multi-agency regional drug enforcement project.

Eck is known for his research on criminal investigations, for his work on problem-oriented policing, and for developing the theory of place management as an explanation for very high crime locations.  Eck has written numerous papers, books, and monographs for police practitioners and for researchers.  He is the recipient of the 2016 Ronald V. Clarke ECCA Award for Fundamental Contributions to Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis.  Also that year, Eck was honoured with The Collaborative Agreement Award for assisting in police reform and racial healing in Cincinnati.  He enjoys assisting his wife, Jennifer, in restoring old cemeteries and repairing tombstone.  Eck also likes sculpting granite and other hard rock.

Professor Susan McVie OBE

Professor Susan McVie is Chair of Quantitative Criminology in the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh.  She is Director of the newly established Analyzing Multidimensional and Multiscale Inequalities in Scottish Society (AMMISS) Research Centre and ex-Director of the Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN), a leading research centre focused on advanced research in the areas of crime, education and urban inequalities.  She is Co-Director of the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime (ESYTC); one of the founder members of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR); and leader of the Crime and Justice work strand of the Administrative Data Research Centre in Scotland (ADRC-S).

Susan’s research focuses on: crime patterns and trends; youth crime and justice; criminal careers and developmental criminology; violence and homicide; and gangs and knife crime.  Her research has had a dramatic impact in reforming the Scottish youth justice system and formed the evidence base for the new Whole Systems Approach to young people; her work on school experience and exclusion has fundamentally changed school exclusion policies in Scottish schools; and she was influential in bringing about the end of non-statutory stop and search in Scotland and helped to draft the new Code of Practice on stop and search.  She sits on a number of influential government committees, including the Building Safer Communities Programme Board and the Independent Advisory Group on Stop and Search in Scotland.  She supports the work many third sector organisations and has recently been appointed to the Board of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.  She is a member of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Capability Committee and influences at a national level the UK’s social science data infrastructure and early career research development.

In 2013, Susan was awarded (jointly with Lesley McAra) the Howard League for Penal Reform Research Medal.  In 2014, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2016, she received an OBE for services to social science in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List; and she was jointly awarded (with Lesley McAra) the inaugural University of Edinburgh Chancellor's Award for Research Impact by HRH Princess Anne.

Professor Lorraine Mazerolle

Lorraine Mazerolle is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow (2010–2015), a Professor in the School of Social Science at The University of Queensland, and a Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (LCC). She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Criminology, and a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology (ASC), the Academy of Experimental Criminology (AEC) and the Academy of the Social Sciences Australia. Lorraine is the past Chair of the ASC’s Division of Experimental Criminology (2014–2015), and the recipient of the 2016 ASC Division of Policing Distinguished Scholar Award, the 2013 AEC Joan McCord Award, and the 2010 ASC Division of International Criminology Freda Adler Distinguished Scholar Award.

Her research interests are in experimental criminology, policing, drug law enforcement, regulatory crime control, and crime prevention, and she has won numerous US and Australian national competitive research grants on topics such as third party policing, police engagement with high risk people and disadvantaged communities, community regulation, problem-oriented policing, police technologies, civil remedies, street-level drug enforcement and policing public housing sites.

Professor Martine Powell

Martine Powell is a Professor of psychology and Founding Director of the Centre for Investigative Interviewing. Professor Powell’s area of expertise is investigative interviewing, in particular interviewing of children and vulnerable witnesses, and in cases of sexual offences and child abuse.

Professor Powell has extensive experience conducting research in this area – including over 230 publications – and she has designed, implemented and evaluated interviewer training programs for a diverse range of professional groups, both nationally and internationally. Professor Powell’s research is best described as practice-based, conducted in collaboration with industry partners to inform decisions about how to improve investigative and evidential interviewing.