History of crime, policing and criminal justice

Within the History discipline at The Open University a specific research group is devoted to the study of criminal justice history: the Centre for the History of Crime, Policing and Justice (CHCPJ). The Centre promotes and facilitate research into criminal justice history around the world and to generate the exchange of ideas between academics, criminal justice practitioners and serving police personnel. This is achieved via seminars, conferences, publications and the provision of specialist archive facilities.

We have links with police research centres in Europe and the Antipodes, our own police records archive, and links to heritage institutions in the UK. We have a record of securing major funding, and of successfully supervising postgraduate students. We invite proposals on any aspect of the development of UK, European or colonial police forces, on crime and/or deviancy, and on systems of punishment from 1750 to the present.

Members of the centre are also active participants in the Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative (formerly the Centre for Comparative Criminological Research), located in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. This cooperation brings together international cross-faculty expertise in areas as diverse as youth justice and forensic psychology.

For more information on the research interests of members, archival holdings, and recent doctoral research projects, please visit the ICHCPJ website.

We welcome applications in areas that correspond with current staff research interests. We look for detailed proposals, which set out specific research questions and outline the originality of your topic or approach. We strongly encourage you to contact us to discuss your ideas informally before submitting an application.

Entry requirements

Most successful applicants to the PhD programme have a masters degree in history or a related discipline, and/or a first class history degree with a substantial original-source dissertation. However, applicants can still be considered provided they demonstrate evidence of the ability to pursue research and write at a high level in some historical field.

Current/recent research projects

• Sophie Michell, 'The Dynamics of Death: Peterborough Coroners' Court, 1854–1905'

Potential supervisors

• Professor Rosalind Crone
• Professor Paul Lawrence
• Dr Helen O'Shea
• Dr Chris Williams

Fees and funding

Some of our research students are funded via the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see Current studentships.

Links

• Centre for the History of Crime, Policing and Justice
• Centre for Comparative Criminological Research
• History at The Open University