Ian Marder

The aims of my research are twofold:
- to determine how to reduce the size and scope of, and harm caused by, the criminal justice system; and,
- to identify and implement humane, evidence-based and innovative mechanisms to meet the needs of people who are affected by crime, harm and conflict.

This involves a range of activities, including conducting empirical research, disseminating research findings, supporting policy and practice development, facilitating workshops, building and managing networks, and delivering training and education for professionals, students and the public.

I mostly collaborate with researchers, government ministries, criminal justice agencies, and the third sector to develop restorative justice and restorative practices in criminal justice, education and other sectors. This work has been funded by, among others, the Irish Research Council, the Department of Justice, the Irish Prison Service, the Estonian Ministry of Justice and the International Commission of Jurists. 

Currently, I coordinate Restorative Justice: Strategies for Change, a five-year project (2019-24) which seeks to implement Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)8 concerning restorative justice in criminal matters in ten European countries.

I am also interested in sentencing and the design of sentencing guidelines, professional discretion and decision-making, criminal justice inspection, institutional and occupational cultures, and social enterprise.

I coordinate four modules across the BA, BCL and MA programmes: LW269 Policing (A and B), LW380 Victimology and LW687 Restorative Justice. Since 2019, I am Director of the MA in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice. I supervise students on the modules LW458 Research Project, LW653 Placement and LW690 Dissertation.

With Dr. Treasa Kenny, I supervise a Ph.D. student, Catherine O'Connell, whose research explores the use of restorative approaches in organisational change. With Dr. Joe Garrihy, I supervise a Ph.D. student, Damola Adeniran, whose research focuses on the implementation of restorative justice in Nigeria.

I have a keen interest in the teaching of restorative justice and the use of restorative practices in teaching and learning, establishing the Restorative Justice Pedagogy Network in 2020. In 2019/20, I won a Team Teaching and Learning Fellowship for a project that used restorative practices to involve students in reviewing and redesigning a final-year module. In 2021/22, I won the Maynooth Teaching Award for my work using restorative practices to build community within the MA programme. In 2021, I obtained funding from the Estonian Ministry of Justice to support the University of Tartu to integrate restorative justice into its law curriculum.

I am open to requests for guest and community teaching. I have delivered guest lectures at over twenty universities in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Belarus, Albania, Ireland, New Zealand, Argentina, the US and the UK. I have also taught restorative justice to police, prison and probation officers, judges, lawyers and social workers in England, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Estonia. In 2020, I organised and delivered a short course on victimology for victim advocates.

On Maynooth's criminology and law programmes, I have contributed to PO224 Researching Criminology, LW631 Criminology and Criminal Justice, LW696 Research Methods in Criminology, LW398 Punishment, Penal Policies and Prisons, LW691 Professional Development, LW164 Introduction to Criminological Theory, LW165 Introduction to Criminal Justice and LW156 Introduction to Law II. I led LW454 Introduction to Criminology from 2018/19 to 2021/22. I have also taught on Maynooth's BA in Community Studies, Certificate in Restorative Practice and Mediation, Diploma in Addiction Studies, Diploma in Mediation, Negotiation and Conflict, Master's in Social Work, and Communiversity programme. 

At the University of Leeds (2013-2018), I taught a range of subjects, including penology, research methods, youth justice, victimology, transnational crime and justice, foundations of social science, and introductory crime and justice courses.