Ian Marder

My main research interest is in the theory, applications and implementation of restorative justice. My work in this field focuses largely on engaging governments and criminal justice agencies to encourage the safe, evidence-based development of restorative justice. Through this, I have developed a range of interests regarding the operational approaches of different criminal justice agencies (especially police and probation) and certain types of crime and conflict (particularly hate crime, inter-cultural conflict, low-level violence and neighbourhood conflict). I am also interested in the development of restorative justice legislation and national, regional and institutional restorative justice strategies and policies. Moreover, I am interested in the application of restorative approaches beyond the criminal procedure, including in schools and university settings, in social work and child protection, and proactively within communities and organisations. Following the adoption of the Council of Europe Recommendation concerning restorative justice in criminal matters in October 2018, I will work with colleagues from across Europe to stimulate its implementation.

My Ph.D research - funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, supervised by Prof. Anthea Hucklesby and Prof. Adam Crawford, and examined by Prof. Carolyn Hoyle (University of Oxford) - explored the institutionalisation of restorative justice in two English police forces (2013-2018). I am currently in the process of writing up this study for publication. I have also conducted research in restorative justice for the Restorative Justice Council (on its use with young adults, 2013), Restorative Solutions (on burglary victims' experiences of post-sentence restorative justice, 2011), the European Forum for Restorative Justice (on its teaching in universities, 2015) and Search for Common Ground Maghreb (on its development in Moroccan Child Detention Centres, 2013).

My research in policing caused me to develop a broader interest in practitioner decision-making, leading to my involvement in a project on sentencing. With colleagues from the Universities of Leeds and Oxford, I am currently undertaking research which uses advanced quantitative methods and policy analysis to assess and compare the impact of sentencing guidelines on judicial decision-making in different jurisdictions.

More broadly, I am interested in progressive criminal justice reform and in the development of research evidence and the public, governmental and institutional engagement required to support such reforms. 

Outside of criminology, I have a research interest in social finance, social enterprise and social value. My master's thesis (2012) compared the harm caused by the reborrowing phenomenon in the US and UK high-cost credit sectors and explored the potential to support nonprofit alternatives as a harm reduction strategy. Subsequently, I conducted research for Ecology Building Society (2012), writing a report which situated their work in the broader academic and legal context of social finance. More recently (2017-18), I ran a project on behalf of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and funded by the Leeds Social Sciences Institute, which explored the role of universities in ensuring that the benefits of economic growth were equitably distributed. I am also interested in disarmament, having conducted research for the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (2013) on the integration of stockpile management concerns into disaster risk reduction strategies.

In 2018/19, I will coordinate the following modules at Maynooth University:   

- LW269 Policing (2nd year BCL and BA)
- LW454 Introduction to Criminology (4th year LLB)   

I will also teach half of each of the following modules

- LW164B Introduction to Criminological Theory (1st year BCL and BA)
- LW165A Introduction to Criminal Justice (1st year BCL and BA)

Finally, I will give guest lectures on the following modules:

- PO224 Researching Criminology (BCL and BA)
- LW631 Criminology and Criminal Justice (MA/LLM)

At the University of Leeds (2013-2018), I taught a wide range of subjects, including penology, youth justice, restorative justice, victimology, criminal justice processes, transnational crime, foundations of social science, research methods and introductory crime and criminal justice modules. I have also guest lectured on restorative justice at KU Leuven (Belgium, 2015), the University of Gloucestershire (UK, 2016) and the University of Tirana (Albania, 2018), and taught restorative justice to police officers at West Yorkshire Police (UK, 2018) and to prison officers, probation officers and student prison officers at the National Academy of Security Sciences (Estonia, 2018).