Professor Deborah Drake

Professor Of Criminology And Social Justice

deborah.drake@open.ac.uk

Biography

Professional biography

I am Professor of Criminology and Social Justice and I have been with The Open University since 2007.

PhD Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge (2007)
MA, Sociology, University of Saskatchewan (2003)
BA Hons, Sociology, University of Saskatchewan (2001)
BA, Psychology, University of Saskatchewan (2001)

I am a member of the Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative (HERC), which is an interdisciplinary, cross-faculty research centre concerned with developing and supporting research projects and papers that think critically about problems of crime and justice. I have a long standing interest and personal affiliation with critical criminological work and together with Prof Reece Walters (Deakin, Melbourne) I am a commissioning editor for a book series entitled Critical Criminological Perspectives (Palgrave). The series seeks to capture the original and innovative ways that critical criminological discourses engage with contemporary issues of crime, harm and justice.

Research interests

I have an established research record on prisons and punishment that is internationally recognised. I have also carried out research and published in the areas of community development, partnership working within third sector organisations in the UK and analysis of political discourse and policy making. More recently I have been working on propaganda studies in criminology and I am currently developing ideas on complexity theory with Dr Dan McCulloch and Dr Steve Conway. Please click through to the publications page on the above tab to see my list of publications.

Selected Current and Previous PhD students - please note I am not currently accepting new PhD students

Rose Parkes (2020-present, PT), co-supervised with Dr Suzanne Newcombe (Religious Studies)

Provisional title: Mobilisation: Neoliberal Yoga, Lived Religion and Prison Abolition: A Study of Prison Yoga Teachers

Margret Westergreen-Thorne (2020-present, PT), co-supervised with Professor Steve Tombs and Dr Daniel McCulloch

Provisional title: The Role of Power in Facilitating or Hindering Open University Higher Education Provision in Prisons in England and Wales

Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski (2015-present, PT), co-supervised with Dr Daniel McCulloch and Dr Carly Speed

Provisional Title: Experiences of former prison HE students: An exploration of whether punishment and rehabilitation can co-exist

Angela Charles (completed, 2024), co-supervised with Dr Victoria Cooper

Provisional Title: Black Women’s Experiences in Prison through an Intersectional Lens

Elizabeth Wilburn (completed, 2020), co-supervised with Dr Chris Williams

Title: To what extent were the police-led boys’ clubs of England and Wales from 1918-1951 a phenomenon in their own right?

Steve Conway (completed, 2019), co-supervised with Dr Louise Westmarland and Dr. James Mehigan.

Title: Understanding the Factors Contributing to the Absence of Gangs in the Borough of Milton Keynes: A Negative Aetiology

Daniel McCulloch (completed, 2016), co-supervised with Prof Allan Cochrane and Dr Karim Murji

Title: Analysing Understandings of 'Rough Sleeping': Managing, Becoming and Being Homeless

Roderick Earle (completed, 2014), co-supervised with Prof Steve Tombs

Title: In a Man’s World: Prisons, Identities, Criminologies

Abigail Rowe (completed, 2009), co-supervised with Prof Louise Westmarland and Prof Yvonne Jewkes

Title: Negotiating Disempowerment: Coping and Social Support in Women’s Prisons

Teaching interests

Since joining the university in 2007, I have worked on a wide range of modules and qualifications at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I am currently leading the design of a new first year social sciences module – D112 You and Your World: Introducing the Social Sciences.

I supported the development or enhancement of the following modules and qualifications:

Modules (current)

DD315 Researching Current Issues in Criminology

DD105 Introduction to Criminology

DD102 Introducing the Social Sciences

Modules (discontinued)

DD103 Investigating the Social World

DD301 Crime and Justice

D315 Crime, Order and Social Control

D867 Critical Criminological Perspectives

Qualifications

R21: BA (Hons) Criminology

F75: MA Crime and Justice

Projects

Milton Keynes Community Mobilisers: A Small-Scale Qualitative Follow-Up (D-11-023-DD)

The research is a small-scale, qualitative follow up study that will augment a previous evaluative study of the Milton Keynes mobliser service, conducted between 2006-2009 by Katy Simmons, Martin Woodhead and Anna Laerke (of FELS). The mobiliser service is a preventative service unique to Milton Keynes. It is a local government initiative that seeks to increase social capital within communities, supporting community members to better access local services, build community cohesion, and better achieve their aspirational goals. The proposed small-scale study is concered with examining the ways in which the community mobiliser service has become an embedded feature of community life on two specific estates in Milton Keynes (Wolverton and the Lakes). Building on the previous research conducted by colleagues in FELS the present study will gather a small number of community members’ perspectives on how the mobiliser service is perceived, how it has evolved to meet the needs of community members and the ways it has been sustained. The mobiliser service is of particular interest because it exemplifies recent political intiatives toward ‘big society’ thinking and as such it is of key interest to social policy studies. The research will yield scholarly outputs and will also facilitate greater university-community engagement and will have an impact on MK local government policy and policy implementation.