I am Professor of Quantitative Criminology and Head of Criminology in the Law School at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Director of the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, a longitudinal study of pathways into and out of offending amongst a cohort of over 4,000 people; and Co-Director of the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research, with a focus on developing research using crime and justice data.
My research interests cover a wide range of areas including: criminal careers and offending over the life-course; youth and adult criminal justice system contact; police use of stop and search; use of police powers during the Coronavirus pandemic; violence, knife crime and homicide; public health approaches to policing; policing drugs and cybercrime; and developing new ethical and safe approaches to sharing and linking police, justice, health, education and other public/third sector datasets. My research is primarily (although not exclusively) quantitative and has a strong policy and practice focus.