Professor George Mair
Contact Details:
Address: John Foster Building, 98 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5UZ
Telephone: +44 (0) 151 231 3942
Email: G.Mair@ljmu.ac.uk
George is Professor of Criminal Justice and Head of Research in the Law School. He is a member of the British Society of Criminology, the American Society of Criminology and the European Society of Criminology. He was co-founder of the journal Criminology and Criminal Justice and jointly edited it between 2001-2006. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Liverpool Law Review, the Probation Journal, and the European Journal of Probation.
George has been writing about, and researching aspects of, criminal justice since 1980. He spent 16 years in the Home Office Research and Planning Unit, during the latter half as Principal Research Officer responsible for research and policy advice on community penalties. During that time he carried out the first study of probation day centres, the first evaluation of electronic monitoring, as well as path-breaking studies of intensive probation and of reconviction rates.
Since joining LJMU as Professor of Criminal Justice in 1995 he has carried out research on a variety of topics including:
• Sex offender classification schemes (Home Office/Scottish Office funded)
• Work in prisons with drug-misusing inmates (funded by HM Prison Liverpool and Liverpool Health Authority)
• The Merseyside Arrest Referral Scheme (funded by the Home Office and the Safer Merseyside Partnership)
• The careers of Chief Probation Officers (ESRC funded)
• New uses of electronic monitoring (with the University of Hull; funded by the Home Office)
• The Street Crime Initiative on Merseyside (Liverpool Police/Merseyside City Council funded)
• Probation officers’ views about OASys (NAPO funded)
• The use and impact of the community order and the suspended sentence order (funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation)
He is currently working on a study of the North Liverpool Community Justice Centre.
His main research areas are community penalties, sentencing, criminal justice responses to drug misuse, criminal justice policy, and the relationship between policy and research.
Publications since 2001
2001
‘Technology and the future of community penalties’, in A.Bottoms, L.Gelsthorpe and S.Rex (eds.) Community Penalties: change and challenges. Cullompton: Willan.
‘A decade of electronic monitoring in England and Wales’. Canadian Criminal LawReview 6 (3).
‘Drugs throughcare in a local prison: a process evaluation’. Drugs: education, prevention and policy 8 (4).
2002
‘Potential problems in rolling out accredited programmes’. NAPO News, Issue 137.
‘Arrest referral schemes: first port of call for drug users in the criminal justice process’. Criminal Justice Matters, No.47.
2004
What Matters in Probation. Cullompton: Willan.
Electronic Monitoring of Offenders: key developments. Issues in Community and Criminal Justice Monograph 5. London: NAPO (with Bottomley, Hucklesby and Nellis)
‘Diversionary and non-supervisory approaches to dealing with offenders’, in A.Bottoms, S.Rex and G.Robinson (eds.) Alternatives to Prison: options for an insecure society. Cullompton: Willan.
‘What Works: rhetoric, reality and research’. British Journal of Community Justice 3 (1).
2005
‘Electronic monitoring in England and Wales: evidence-based or not ?’ Criminal Justice 5 (3).
2006
“’The worst tax form you’ve ever seen” ? Probation Officers’ views about OASys’. Probation Journal 53 (1). (with Burke and Taylor).
‘An evaluation of service provision for short-term and remand prisoners with drug problems’. Probation Journal 53 (2). (with Burke and Ragonese).
‘Electronic monitoring, effectiveness and public policy’. Criminology and Public Policy 5(1).
2007
‘Sentencing, community penalties and the role of the probation service’, in L.Gelsthorpe and R.Morgan (eds.) Handbook of Probation. Cullompton: Willan. (with Canton).
‘Research on community penalties’, in R.King and E.Wincup (eds.) Doing Research on Crime and Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2nd. Edition.
The Use and Impact of the Community Order and the Suspended Sentence Order. London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. (with Cross and Taylor).
2008
The Community Order and the Suspended Sentence Order: the views and attitudes of sentencers. London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. (with Cross and Taylor).
2009
The Community Order and the Suspended Sentence Three Years On: the views and experiences of probation officers and offenders. London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. (with Mills).
‘Community sentences’, in A.Hucklesby and A.Wahidin (eds.) Criminal Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
