Dr Laura Bainbridge
- Position: Associate Professor in Criminal Justice
- Areas of expertise: Violence reduction; enforced alcohol abstinence; alcohol tagging; county lines 'cuckooing' victimisation; Police and Crime Commissioners; qualitative research; innovative research methods
- Email: L.Bainbridge@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: 2.12a Liberty Building
- Website: Twitter | LinkedIn
Profile
I joined the School of Law in January 2020, having previously been employed as an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I completed my PhD in Social Policy at the University of York in 2017. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
I am the founder and chair of the Cuckooing Research & Prevention Network, and the UK Compulsory Sobriety Network. I am also a member of West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit’s Research Advisory Group and sit on the ESRC Peer Review College. I am an active University of Leeds mentor, and a Methods Ambassador for the University of Leeds Social Research Methods Centre.
As an impact-focussed researcher, I have successfully disseminated my findings to UK government ministers, civil servants, Members of Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioners. At the international level, I have been invited to share my insights with crime and justice practitioners located in the United States, Canada, Poland and Belgium, and have acted as an advisor to the Australian Government’s Behavioural Insights Team.
Responsibilities
- School of Law Senior Management Team (2023 - Present)
- Director of Employability - Criminal Justice (2021-2024)
- Deputy Director - Centre for Criminal Justice Studies (2023)
Research interests
My scholarly interests lie at the nexus between social policy, criminology and political science. I specialise in enforced alcohol abstinence, county lines ‘cuckooing’ victimisation and cross-national policy imitation.
I have am currently the Principal Investigator for two co-produced projects funded by Research England. The first involves creating a multi-level cuckooing network to facilitate knowledge exchange between practitioners, policy-makers and academics, while the second entails creating a cuckooing VR training module and associated online resource to be disseminated across England and Wales in 2025.
I am also a Co-Investigator and the ECR Champion for the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre.
- County Lines Policing and Vulnerability
- Preventing and Disrupting County Lines 'Cuckooing’ Victimisation
Qualifications
- PhD Social Policy
- Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP)
- MA Social Policy (Distinction)
- BA (Hons) Politics
Professional memberships
- British Society of Criminology
- European Society of Criminology
- Social Policy Association
- Socio-Legal Studies Association
Student education
I have taught in Higher Education settings since 2013 and have extensive experience of module design and management, lecturing, seminar facilitation and assessment.
I currently deliver research-led teaching on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules on the BA Criminal Justice and Criminology, the MSc Criminal Justice and Criminology and the LLM Criminal Justice and Criminal Law. I also supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertatons.
I co-supervise four Doctoral Researchers: Sat Kartar Chandan, James Young, Kate Astall and Sophie de Groot.
I am an external examiner for Queen Mary University of London.
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for Criminal Justice Studies
- Centre for Law and Social Justice