Welcome to the Centre for Criminology
The Mannheim Centre is a forum for criminological research conducted across the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s Departments. The Centre opened its doors in 1990, but the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s criminological legacies in fact extend much farther back in time. The Centre’s namesake, Hermann Mannheim, was first appointed in 1935 to an honorary part-time lectureship in criminology, and subsequently to the first readership in criminology in the UK in 1946. The Centre’s naming recognises Mannheim’s legacy of research and teaching, as well as his activities on behalf of various organisations committed to criminal reform.
Mannheim contributed foundational work to the understanding of sociology’s relationship to criminal science, penology in its legal setting, and the comparative analysis of criminal justice administration — all at a time when the scientific study of crime and the criminal was in its infancy.
Research focus
Today, the Centre functions as a multidisciplinary rendez-vous for criminological research that incorporates scholars from across the School and attracts visitors from international institutions.
The Centre’s research combines an engagement with key criminological and policy issues of the day with a longer-term interest in theoretical and empirical developments. Recent examples continue the tradition set by those key figures in British Criminology who are among the Mannheim Centre’s past and present members; such work includes significant and pioneering work on gender and race in the justice system, suicide, drugs, social disorder and deviance, riots, political economy, and much else besides.