Dr Amy Loughery

Profile

I joined the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre (VPRC) as a Research Fellow in 2024 and I am involved in several projects. I am currently working on Changing the Narrative, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) research project involving local community organisations, which explores young people of colour’s lived experiences of violence and policing in Harehills, Leeds following the July 2024 disorder. I am also a Co-Investigator on the County Lines demonstration project, Crossing the Line: Rethinking the Alpha Victim. This is an impact-focused project in which findings from the first national study of County Lines have been translated into a professionally produced 10-minute film and a suite of practitioner-focused training resources, which I am delivering as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to police and allied professionals. In addition, I am involved in the Centre’s Vulnerability Awareness CPD offer, which aims to improve police interactions with vulnerable people.

Prior to joining the VPRC, I was a Research Fellow on a series of projects which explored County Lines ‘cuckooing’ victimisation with Dr Laura Bainbridge. This included an N8 Police Research Partnership project focused on understanding and preventing home takeovers in the North of England, conducted in partnership with seven police forces and a local Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). Findings from the N8 project were translated into award-winning impact activity supported by Research England Policy Support Funding. This included a co-produced ‘cuckooing toolkit’ for social housing providers which was designed in partnership with local stakeholders; a series of bespoke in-person training sessions and online webinars delivered to police and allied professionals; and Behind Closed Doors, a Virtual Reality training module and e-learning package for professionals who encounter ‘cuckooing’. I have recently co-edited and contributed to an academic collection for the Routledge Crime and Society series titled Cuckooing Victimisation: County Lines and Beyond with Dr Laura Bainbridge (Leeds) and Professor Rose Broad (Manchester).

I am co-chair of the Cuckooing Research and Prevention Network, for which I have contributed to written responses and submitted evidence to Parliament and the House of Lords on new and existing legislation; I co-chair network symposiums and conferences; and I regularly speak at external events. I am an active member of the VPRC research community. I am also a member of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies (CCJS) and the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA).

I was awarded a PhD from the University of York in 2023. My thesis explored the relationship between ‘care’ and ‘control’ in a Scottish Drug Court, in which individuals convicted of drug-related offences are sentenced to complete a programme of judicially-supervised drug treatment in the community. During PhD study, I taught on undergraduate criminology, sociology, social policy and social work, and law modules, predominantly those with a focus on criminal justice and criminology. Prior to this, I completed an MA in Criminology and Social Research at the University of York and I was employed as a Research Assistant at York Law School.

Research interests

My scholarly interests lie at the nexus of social policy, criminology, and law. I am particularly interested in understanding criminal justice responses to drug market-related exploitation, as well as the policing and criminal justice management of vulnerable and marginalised social groups, and the integration of this with multi-agency, welfare-oriented approaches. I am an impact-focused researcher who is committed to producing research that has applications beyond academia, with the capacity to influence law, policy, and practice. I am also interested in using innovative qualitative research methods, such as narrative methods and graphic elicitation, to engage hard-to-reach participant groups in impact-focused research.

Co-investigator (Co-I)

• Changing the Narrative: Understanding the lived experiences of young people of colour in Harehills
• Preventing and Disrupting County Lines 'Cuckooing’ Victimisation
• Project AL-V: Rethinking the ‘Alpha Victim'

Qualifications

• PhD Social Policy and Social Work (York)
• MA Criminology and Social Research (York)
• LLB Law (York)

Professional memberships

• Cuckooing Research and Prevention Network
• Centre for Criminal Justice Studies
• Socio-Legal Studies Association