Picture of David Wilkin

Dr David Wilkin

Associate Lecturer

Social Policy & Criminology

david.wilkin@open.ac.uk

07900283322

Biography

Dr David Wilkin

Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0083-9909

EAcademic History
David graduated with a BA in Criminology and Psychology and a BSc in Sociology and Human Geography, both from the Open University. Following this David successfully undertook an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice by Distance Learning at the University of Leicester. David spent over thirty years in various roles within the public transport sector. From being a train driver to incident manager and latterly in senior management roles which included participating in capital project work and work to improve the security of railways generally and for specific events and incidents. Entering the training sector, David was one of a small group of Equality and Inclusion Trainers; their role being to bring understanding and diversity to a widely experienced workforce. Following this David worked to design training interventions for operational railway staff. David has a passion to resolve issues of hate crime and in particular those concerning people with a range of disabilities.

PhD Research
Having witnessed several seemingly disablist incidents during David’s incident work on London’s railways and being a passionate anti-bullying campaigner, the next logical step for David, was to extend his criminological interests in this direction. To that end, David gained a PhD concerning hate crimes perpetrated on disabled people which occur on public transport in the UK. David delivers presentations concerning hate crime generally to: local authorities; volunteer groups and at information events. Hate crime is proportionately under-researched and disability hate crime even less so.

Teaching
David is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Social Policy and Criminology at the Open University.

Honorary Fellowship
David is an Honorary Fellow within the School of Criminology at the University of Leicester and continues to campaign, speak, lecture and research Disability Hate Crime. David is also interested in the inclusivity and emotionality of working with disabled people and research.

Other Roles
Current roles outside of the university environment include being an advisor to the Home Office and Cabinet Office within UK government, attempting to improve justice for disabled people. David also works with UK police forces, agencies and gives public talks regarding hostility towards disabled people.

 

Publications:-

Publications

Book Chapter

Revealing the benefits, barriers, and prevalence of intersectionality in disability hate crime research (2024)