Dr Sean Butcher
- Position: Lecturer in Criminal Justice
- Areas of expertise: Criminological education; learning and teaching pedagogies; policing/plural policing; mass media representations of crime and justice
- Email: S.B.Butcher@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 0632
- Location: 2.12a Liberty Building
- Website: LinkedIn
Profile
I was appointed a Lecturer in Criminal Justice at the Law School in October 2018, having previously undertaken lecturer's posts in criminal justice at several UK universities. Since taking up my first post in 2011, much of my academic journey has centred around the delivery of high-quality teaching and learning. I have developed extensive experience of module design, delivery, management and administration. My experience spans both traditional academic and vocational course settings, particularly in the area of police and policing studies - where I have designed and delivered undergraduate, postgraduate and foundation pre-join programmes and modules. I have also undertaken various school/departmental leadership roles, both student-facing and strategic.
I am a member of the School of Law's Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education (CIRLE), and Centre for Criminal Justice Studies (CCJS).
Since November 2023, I have acted as the School of Law’s Director of Undergraduate Admissions.
Responsibilities
- Director of Undergraduate Admissions, School of Law
Research interests
In recent years, I have become an enthusiastic advocate for research-led teaching practice and the idea of teaching and scholarship as a source of serious intellectual inquiry in its own right. I have undertaken specific research focused on the employability prospects of criminology graduates, skills development, and student preferences within hybrid learning settings.
Prior to this, my academic career largely consisted of a focus upon the nature of contemporary policing and police work. Between 2015-2019, my ESRC-funded PhD research focused upon the nature and function of citizen patrol initiatives, and their contributions to policing. Between 2014-15, I completed a Research and Improvement Leader Fellowship at CLAHRC Northwest London - a collaborative research network funded by the National Institute of Health Research. During this programme, I carried out research on multi-agency relationships and their impacts upon information-sharing within multi-agency safeguarding hubs (MASHs). I retain interests in the these areas, as well as in popular media representations of crime and justice. I also take a keen interest in ethnographic approaches towards researching crime, disorder and criminal justice.
Qualifications
- PhD Law, University of Leeds
- MSc Criminal Justice Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science
- BSc (Hons) Police Studies with Criminal Investigation, Buckinghamshire New University
- PGCert Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Buckinghamshire New University
Professional memberships
- British Society of Criminology
- European Society of Criminology
- Higher Education Academy (Fellow)
- European Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Network (EuroSoTL)
Student education
I currently coordinate and deliver the following module(s) on the University's BA Criminal Justice and Criminology programme:
- Understanding Crime
I also coordinate and deliver modules on the MSc and LLM Criminal Justice programmes, including:
- Contemporary Theories of Crime
- Contemporary Theories of Justice
- Researching Crime, Security and Justice.
In addition to my aforementioned student education responsibilities, I also play an active role in assessment scrutiny, the mentoring of junior colleagues, and representation of taught programmes at open day events.
Since January 2020, I also act as an external examiner for a suite of criminal justice degree programmes at Liverpool John Moores University.
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for Criminal Justice Studies
- Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education