Professor Louise Westmarland

Professor Of Criminology

louise.westmarland@open.ac.uk

01908652462

Biography

Research interests

Louise Westmarland has almost 30 years’ service with The Open University and has been Professor of Criminology in Social Policy and Criminology since 2017. She has a worldwide reputation as an expert on police corruption and gender and policing. Her fourth book, which is her third monograph, is in press and due to be launched July 2025. She is an active researcher and has been included in the REF every year since its inception. Her list of publications extends to many articles and conference presentations. Her media profile has been enhanced by her work on numerous BBC/ OU series, principally ‘The Met’ where she was an academic consultant on four series, each with six episodes on prime time BBC1 with many millions of viewers. She was a member of the OU’s HREC for over 15 years, first serving as Deputy Chair and then as Chair of the Committee for four years. As Director of the cross faculty research group, ICCCR, she led the transition into its current format, HERC.

As a PhD lead supervisor Professor Westmarland has seen ten successful students through to their doctorate. She has had many external examining roles, including PhDs, degree programmes and qualifications at various universities, national and internationally, over the years. As part of her community engagement Professor Westmarland is a Home Office accredited Domestic Homicide Review Chair. This role involves convening and chairing statutory public inquiries (DHRs) where a death has occurred in a domestic setting to see whether lessons can be learnt by organisations such as the police, health and social services. Panels of experts are questioned by the Chair, evidence collated and a report is then submitted to the Home Office. She has also been a member of the of the National Crime Agency’s Ethics Committee for five years ending in 2024 and is currently a member of the National Police Ethics Committee.

She also has an ongoing investigation into the public hearings for police gross misconduct proceedings. As part of her ongoing research, she will be attending conferences both in the UK and the US, and touring Australia where she has a two week lecture and research visit planned for April 2025. She has an invitation to speak at a national conference in June 2025 and will be attending a major police symposium at Cumberland Lodge this year. It is hoped that this will lead to publicity for her forthcoming book ‘Police Ethics: Cop culture, corruption and the blue code of silence’ (Palgrave Macmillan 2025) as well as strengthening research networks that she has here in the UK and in Australia.

Louise Westmarland (2013): 'Snitches get stitches': US homicide detectives' ethics and morals in action, Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy, DOI:10.1080/10439463.2013.784313

Westmarland, L. (2011) Researching Crime and Justice: Tales from the Field. London: Routledge.

Westmarland, Louise (2010). Dodgy customers? Can the police ever trust the public? Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 4(3), pp. 291-297.

Clarke, J, Newman,J, Smith, N, Vidler, E and Westmarland, L (2007) Creating Citizen-consumers: Changing Publics and Changing Public Services. Sage: London

Hobbs, D, O'Brien, K, and Westmarland, L. (2007) Connecting the Gendered Door: women, violence and doorwork. British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 21-38

O'Brien, K., Hobbs, D. and Westmarland, L., (2007) 'Negotiating Violence and Gender: Security and the Night Time Economy in the UK', in Body-Gendrot, S and Spierenburg, P., (eds ) Cultures of Violence in Europe: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Springer Publishing .

Westmarland, L. (2005) Police Ethics and Integrity: Breaking the Blue Code of Silence, Policing and Society, vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 145-165

Westmarland, L. (2003) 'Policing Integrity: Britain's Thin Blue Line' in Klockars,C.B., Haberfeld,M. and Kutjnak Ivkovich, S. The Contours of Police Integrity, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage

Westmarland, L. (2002) 'Challenges of Policing London: A Conversation with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens', Police Practice and Research. An International Journal, vol.3, no.3, pp.247-260.

Westmarland, L. (2001) Gender and Policing. Sex, Power and Police Culture, Devon, Willan.

Westmarland, L. (2001) 'Blowing the whistle on police violence: ethics, research and ethnography', British Journal of Criminology, vol.41, no.2, pp.523-35.

Westmarland, L. (2000) 'Taking the flak: operational policing, fear and violence' in Lee-Treweek, G. and Linkogle, S. Danger in the Field: Risk and Ethics in Social Research, London, Routledge.

Westmarland, L. (2000) 'Telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?' Ethical Human Services and Sciences, vol.2, no.3, pp.193-202.

Westmarland, L. and Yearley, S. (2000) 'Scientific selection and the CID', Police Research and Management, vol.4, no.4.

Westmarland, L. (1999) 'Women Managing in the Police', Police Research and Management, vol.3, no.3.

A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.

Teaching interests

Since Chairing the development, production and presentation of the Faculty's first Level 3 criminology course I have been involved in postgraduate and undergraduate presentations such as DD215, our undergraduate research methods module, and also DD212 our theory course. I also supervise PhD students and take a keen interest in curriculum changes that have been taking place over the years. I've had a long association with The Open University, taking courses as an undergraduate, then serving as a tutor for 7 years, including 5 years of summer schools and exam marking duties.

Projects

British Society of Criminology Annual Conference 2021: ‘Crime and Harm: Challenges of Social and Global Justice?'

AMS record created to record the income and payments to the BSC for hosting of the British Society of Criminology Annual Conference 2021: ‘Crime and Harm: Challenges of Social and Global Justice?'