Research

Fiona Brookman is Professor of Criminology at the University of South Wales where she undertakes postgraduate teaching, doctoral supervision and research.  She obtained her MSc and PhD in Criminology from Cardiff University. 

Using mainly qualitative research methods, her research focuses, broadly, on the dynamics and causes of violence, violence prevention and criminal investigation.  She is leading authority internationally in ethnographic research methods, including observation and narrative analysis and has extensive experience of engaging in interviews with violent offenders (including male and female murderers, street and armed robbers), mephedrone users, victims/survivors of violence, and criminal justice practitioners.  She also has extensive experience of shadowing homicide detectives and forensic scientists and of observing homicide investigations, from crime scene to court, in Britain and America.

Fiona led a Leverhulme-funded project exploring the role of forensic science and technology in homicide investigation across Britain.  She has also undertaken a number of evaluations and evidence assessment projects on behalf of the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service and Welsh Government on topics such as: serious crime and police corruption in Trinidad and Tobago, reducing and preventing homicide in the UK, tackling gang-related homicide, the impacts of using forensic science in the investigation of homicide,  the links between mephedrone use, violence and other harms and an evaluation of Operation Tarian Regional Drugs Task Force in South Wales.

She recently co-developed the COSC Project (Co-creating Spaces for Change) in collaboration with Welsh Women’s Aid – a pilot to explore the value of creative engagement in university taster sessions for women residing in refuges who have experienced VAWDASV (Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence).   She is currently developing a research bid with Big Lottery to expand this work across four regions of south Wales.

Fiona’s research has informed violence reduction initiatives and contributed to world leading and internationally excellent impact ratings in the 2014 and 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF).

She directs the Criminal Investigation Research Network that connects researchers from around the world to improve policing knowledge and practice. She is expert advisor to the Home Office Crime and Policing Group, member of the European Narrative Criminology Working Group, the USW VAWDASV network and the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling. 

Fiona has over 80 peer reviewed publications including those in top ranking international journals such as Criminology, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Policing and Society, Aggression and Violent Behavior, the British Journal of Criminology, the European Journal of Criminology and Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy and Criminal Law Bulletin, as well as numerous chapters in edited collections, including The Oxford Handbook of Offender Decision Making (Oxford: 2017), the Oxford Handbook of Criminology (Oxford: 2012), In Their Own Words (Oxford: 2013), Narrative Criminology (New York: 2015) and The Handbook of Qualitative Criminology (Routledge: 2015). She is lead editor of the Handbook of Homicide (Wiley: 2017) and author of Understanding Homicide (Sage: 2022) (2nd edition).

Teaching and Doctoral Supervision

Fiona designed and delivers modules on the Criminology degree programme, including 'Understanding Homicide' at Undergraduate level and 'Violence and Homicide' at Masters level.  She has supervised nine PhD students to successful completion (on topics such as gangs and violence, drug use and offending, domestic homicide reviews and public order policing).  She currently supervises six PhD students on topics that include: the sensemaking role of CSIs at suspicious crime scenes, the role of digital forensics in homicide investigation, missing persons investigations, domestic violence victim support services in Wales and the declining charge rate in homicide offences in England and Wales.   

Fiona welcomes applications from prospective PhD students interested in investigating: theories of crime/violence, reducing the impacts of violence of victims/survivors; reducing and preventing crime; criminal investigation; the use of forensic science, digital technologies and AI to tackle crime; the ethical use of forensic science in the criminal justice system; narrative and visual criminology.