Professor Emeritus Malcolm Cowburn BA, MA, CQSW, MPhil, PhD, FHEA

Emeritus Professor

Summary

While employed as an academic, my main areas of research were related to sexual violence, the management of diversity in prisons and applied social science research ethics. I have continued to publish in these areas since I retired.
More recently I have developed an interest in oral history. My first project (supported by the School of Law at the University of Plymouth) engaged with retired magistrates in North Devon - ‘Local Justice needs local knowledge’: summary justice in North Devon 1975-2018. Oral History, Autumn 2019, 47 (2), 74-85

The second project was 'Beaford Hidden Histories' (https://beaford.org/oral-histories/) where I worked as a free-lance oral historian from April 2018-May 2019. The project was linked to photographs in the Beaford Archive taken by Roger Deakins and James Ravilious from the 1970s to the 1990s. In total 125 North Devonians (individually and in groups) gave testimony to the project about rural life in North Devon 1975-1990. There is more than 105 hours of recordings now held in the Beaford archive. The Archive represents a significant resource for local historian in north Devon.

Last year I jointly contributed the following publication to an international encyclopaedia:

Cowburn, M. & Wahidin, A. (2021) ‘Ethics and Criminology and Criminal Justice: from conceptualising to conduct’ (with Wahidin, A.) in Barnes, J. C. and Forde, D. R. (eds) The Encyclopedia of Research Methods and Statistical Techniques in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Oxford: Wiley.

E-mail

About

I worked at Sheffield Hallam University from September 2008 until March 2013 as a Principal Lecturer in Criminology. I was awarded a personal Chair in Applied Social Science in February 2010. I previously worked at Bradford (2 years) and Sheffield (12 years) Universities. My work spans criminology, sociology, social policy and social work. Prior to entering academia, I worked as a probation officer for 12 years and also managed a therapy centre that provided help to children and young people who had been sexually abused.
Since retirement I have been associated with two Universities in the South-West of England, the NRES Ethics committee in Exeter, Buckfast Abbey and MAPPA in Devon and Cornwall (see ‘Other Responsibilities below). I have also managed two oral history projects.

Teaching

College of Social Sciences and Arts

Research

2010 Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) Knowledge Exchange Small Grants. Opening up communicative space: towards a collaboratively generated impact in responding to Diversity in HMP Wakefield. Award number: RES-192-22-0047. Co-investigator; Principal Investigator Dr Victoria Lavis, University of Bradford.

I have three main areas of research interest

Sex offenders and sexual violence
Prisons and the management of diversity
Research/applied ethics

Research Funding

2009 Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC). Appreciative inquiry into the Diversity Strategy of HMP Wakefield. Award number RES-000-22-3441. Principal Investigator; (Co-investigator Dr Victoria Lavis, University of Bradford); £79,719.27. (March-November 2009) https://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-000-22-3441/read

Publications

2019 (forthcoming) 'Summary justice in North Devon 1975-2018: an oral history'. Oral History, Autumn 2019

2019 (in press) ‘Ethics and Criminology and Criminal Justice: from conceptualising to conduct’ (with Wahidin, A.) in Barnes, J. C. and Forde, D. R. (eds) The Encyclopedia of Research Methods and Statistical Techniques in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Oxford: Wiley.

COWBURN, Malcolm, GELSTHORPE, Loraine, WAHIDIN, Azrini (eds.) (2017). Research Ethics in Criminology and Criminal Justice – Politics, Dilemmas, Issues and Solutions. London; Routledge.

COWBURN, Malcolm (2017). ‘Researching sex crimes and sex offenders: some ethical and epistemological considerations’ In: COWBURN, Malcolm, GELSTHORPE, Loraine, WAHIDIN, Azrini (eds.) (2017). Research Ethics in Criminology: Politics, Dilemmas, Issues and Solutions. London; Routledge.

COWBURN, Malcolm, GELSTHORPE, Loraine, WAHIDIN, Azrini (2017). ‘Critical reflections: creating, curtailing and communicating academic freedoms’ In: COWBURN, Malcolm, GELSTHORPE, Loraine, WAHIDIN, Azrini (eds.) (2017). Research Ethics in Criminology: Politics, Dilemmas, Issues and Solutions. London; Routledge.

COWBURN, Malcolm (2017). ‘Values in probation with people who commit sex crimes’ In: PRIESTLEY, P., VANSTONE, M. (eds.) Probation and Politics: Academic Reflections from Former Practitioners. Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan.

COWBURN, Malcolm, MYERS, Steve (2016). Social Work with Sex Offenders. Bristol; Policy Press.

COWBURN, Malcolm, MYERS, Steve (2015) 'Sex offenders’. In: WRIGHT, James D. (ed)International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed), Vol 21. Oxford; Elsevier Inc. pp 672-677

COWBURN, M., DUGGAN, M., Robinson, A., & Senior, P. (Eds.). (2013). Values in Criminology and Community Justice. Bristol: Policy Press.

Other activities

Current professional activities

2021 - ongoing National Trustee Oral History Society https://www.ohs.org.uk/who-we-are/trustees/

Past Professional activities

2018-2019, Oral Historian, Beaford Hidden Histories, https://beaford.org/oral-histories/

2014 - 2019, Visiting Professor of Criminology, School of Law, University of Plymouth

2010 - ongoing, Member of ESRC Peer Review College, Economic and Social Research Council

2014 - 2016, Honorary Professor of Criminology, Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology, University of Exeter

2014 -2018, Member of South West, Exeter Research Ethics Committee

2011 - 2013 Chair of British Society of Criminology Ethics Committee.

Learned Journals

Associate Editor
2008- 2013 Journal of Sexual Aggression

Editorial boards
1997-2014 Journal of Sexual Aggression

Professor Malcolm Cowburn