Centre for Criminal Justice Studies Annual Lecture 2026 - Professor Sylvia Walby (Royal Holloway, University of London)
- Date: Wednesday 4 March 2026, 5:00 – 7:30
- Location: Liberty Building (Moot Court) LT (1.28)
- Cost: Free
Sylvia Walby is Professor of Criminology in the Department of Law and Criminology, Royal Holloway, University of London. Her current research is focused on violence and society.
This includes the concept and measurement of violence, data and indicators, the gender dimension of violence, trafficking in human beings, and theorising the relationship between violence and society. The goal is to contribute research to support the vision of zero violence. This entails engagement with policy and public bodies, both governmental and non-governmental, at national and international levels, and co-producing research agendas.
Sylvia was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2022, and elected Chair of the Section for Sociology, Demography and Social Statistics in 2025. She was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2007 and awarded an OBE for services to equality and diversity in 2008. Sylvia was the Chair of the REF2021 Sociology Sub-Panel and was a member of the REF2014 Sociology Sub-Panel. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast in 2017.
Sylvia held the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Anneliese Maier Research Award, which supported a programme of internationalising research on society, violence, trafficking, gender regimes, and complex systems theory, hosted by the University of Duisburg-Essen, 2018-2025.
Sylvia is founding Co-President of the International Sociological Association’s (ISA) Working Group 11 on Violence and Society (2020-27). She was President of the ISA Research Committee on Economy and Society (RC02) and member of the ISA Research Council, 2006-10. Sylvia was the founding President of the European Sociological Association (ESA), 1995-7, and Chair of the Steering Committee to establish the ESA, 1992-5. Sylvia was the founding chairholder of the UNESCO Chair for Gender Research, 2008-2019, and was one of the Directors of the UK National Commission for UNESCO, 2011-13.
This paper aims to link theoretical issues in gender, violence, and society with a critical review of government strategy. Improving policies to reduce violence against women and girls requires rethinking the concepts of gender and violence, and how they fit together in a concept and theory of society. The balance between public expenditure on the carceral treatment of perpetrators, the welfare support provided to victim-survivors, and the regulation of the wider environment is a key issue. This changing balance is related to wider societal changes, including the authoritarian turn. The underlying theory of change proposed draws on complex systems theory that includes the role of gendered and intersecting inequalities in driving violence. The measurement of violent crime includes the number of violent incidents as well as the number of victims, so that change in the multi-faceted nature of violence can be effectively monitored. In short, mainstreaming gender into crime policy is argued to mean its integration into the whole of government, and the whole of society. The paper offers an empirical focus on recent developments in the UK, set in a wider European and international context. Its main purpose is to reflect on the underlying theoretical and conceptual issues at stake in alternative strategic directions, and to propose a way forward.