My main area of research expertise is school bullying.  My work in this area falls under three main themes:

1. Whole-school interventions: I have experience of developing evidence-based anti-bullying programmes and training for organisations. I am currently the Principal Investigator of a EU-funded project intended to develop a game-based intervention against prejudice-based bullying. 

2. Precursors and consequences:This line of work investigates the precursors, stability and consequences of school bullying using data from longitudinal studies. 

3. Prejudice-based bullying: My current work in this area is looking at the factors that prevent children from intervening in prejudice-based bullying situations. 

Having previously worked as a senior analyst in Scottish Government, I also have significant expertise in evaluation and have conducted evaluations for the former Lancashire Probation Trust and Renfrewshire Council among others. 

Finally, I have a research interest in the following three areas:

Onset offending: I recently published an article on adult-onset offending, adding to the debate on whether it is just an artifact of data or whether it truly exists. 

Desistance from offending: My work in this area has mainly involved examining the effect of criminal justice interventions on the desistance process. 

Improving public services: I have worked on funded projects relating to the effects of compaints on the working practices and wellbeing of public service employees and improving prison officer education. 

I am currently leading an Erasmus+ funded project on preventing prejudice-based bullying in Europe. 

I am interested in doing more research on prejudice-based bullying and bullying in other organisational contexts such as prison. 

Scottish Government

RespectMe

Scottish Prison Service

Prior to joining UWS, I was an analyst in the Scottish Government where I gained experience in conducting both process and outcome evaluations. I can help organisations develop robust and realistic evaluations using tools such as logic modelling and intervention mapping. I have a research interest particularly in experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations and could provide consultancy in this area.