Gwen Robinson University of Sheffield, UK

I studied psychology as an undergraduate at the University of Sussex, and went on to complete an MSc in Applied Social Studies and a Diploma in Social Work at the University of Oxford, specialising in probation practice. After working as a researcher at the University of Oxford Centre for Criminological Research, I completed a PhD at the University of Wales, Swansea. My thesis examined the changing contours of probation practice and in particular the influence of risk assessment technologies on the rehabilitation and management of offenders. In the last ten years I have been involved in a number of empirical research projects and have published in the areas of: offender rehabilitation and management; community sanctions/penalties; and restorative justice. I initially came to work in the School of Law in 2002 as a member of a large research team which conducted a major evaluation of Restorative Justice schemes for the Home Office/Ministry of Justice (led by Joanna Shapland). The book Restorative Justice in Practice: Evaluating What Works for Victims and Offenders (with Joanna Shapland and Angela Sorsby) was published by Routledge in 2011 and provides an account of that study and its findings. I am also co-author (with Peter Raynor) of Rehabilitation, Crime and Justice (Palgrave Macmillan 2009) and co-editor (with Tony Bottoms and Sue Rex) of Alternatives to Prison: Options for an Insecure Society (Willan 2004). I am an active member of the European Society of Criminology’s community sanctions network. Member of the Centre for Criminological Research research cluster.