Economics, crime and public policy

I trained as an applied economic theorist, working on coalitions, public choice and political incentives. These interests continue to inform my research on elections, conflict, media and group formation. Over time, collaborations in policing, criminal justice and health have taken my research in new directions, particularly towards questions where economic thinking can make a practical contribution.

I have worked extensively with UK police and criminal-justice organisations on diversion, youth violence, domestic abuse, knife crime and investigative decision-making. Increasingly, I also work with colleagues in health and other social sciences to study how violence and childhood adversity affect health and wellbeing over the life course.

A substantial part of my work now concerns policy evaluation. I am interested not simply in whether an intervention “works”, but in who benefits, what it costs, how it is implemented and whether it is likely to work elsewhere. This has led me to combine impact and economic evaluation with implementation research and co-production.