In the first Rosewell Lecture of this academic year, Dr Holly Powell-Jones came to talk to us about her work in criminology, outlining the role of a criminologist and debunking some commonly held myths and perceptions about crime.
Dr Powell-Jones began by discussing the role of a criminologist, sharing her own fascinating and slightly unconventional path into the field. After studying Drama and Theatre at university, she worked as a support volunteer for victims of crime before joining a youth television news reporting scheme and later moving into radio. Following a Master’s degree in Radio Journalism, she founded Online Media Law UK, helping to educate young people about the legal and ethical issues surrounding digital media. This interest in the intersection between youth culture, digital media law, and online offending led her to undertake a PhD investigating youth perceptions of crime, which ultimately brought her fully into the field of criminology.
Dr Powell-Jones emphasised to us that the role of a criminologist extends far beyond simply studying crime. Criminologists seek to understand crime through evidence-based research, using a wide variety of methods to explore both the reasons for criminal behaviour and society’s responses to it. These methods can range from interviews and surveys to participant observation, where researchers immerse themselves in particular environments or communities, including online spaces, in order to gain a deeper understanding of experiences and behaviours. She also discussed the use of existing statistics, police reports, legal documents, and media sources, highlighting how criminologists often combine both quantitative and qualitative data to develop a more comprehensive picture of an issue. Criminologists frequently apply their research in practical settings, advising governments, police forces, schools, and other organisations on policy and practice. Many teach at universities, publish books and articles, engage with the media, and contribute to public debates about crime and justice. Others work directly with communities by developing projects, campaigning for social change, or collaborating with health professionals and young people. What struck me most was the sheer diversity of topics within criminology, ranging from policing and probation to questions of morality, social norms, media influences, and gender differences in offending, reflecting how criminology is concerned not only with crime itself, but also with how society defines, understands, and responds to it.
The next part of the lecture consisted of a series of true or false questions, designed to challenge common assumptions about crime and criminality. What I found particularly interesting was the disparity between societal perceptions of crime and the actual evidence we have. For example, Dr Powell-Jones explained that crime and homicide rates have generally fallen over recent decades, despite many people feeling that society has become more dangerous. Similarly, while young people are often portrayed in the media as the perpetrators of crime, those aged 16-24 are actually among the groups most likely to be its victims. Despite this, they tend to report lower levels of fear of crime than older age groups. Another key theme was the difficulty of accurately measuring crime. Dr Powell-Jones noted that police statistics cannot provide a complete picture because a significant proportion of crimes are never reported, making victim surveys an important source of information. She also challenged simplistic distinctions between “criminals” and “law-abiding citizens”, arguing that most people break the law at some point in their lives, even if only in relatively minor ways. This reinforced the idea that crime is often far more complex than it is presented in public discourse and the media.
Several of the examples also challenged widely held beliefs about violence and victimisation. In particular, the lecture highlighted how fears surrounding “stranger danger”, particularly regarding women being out alone at night, often fail to reflect statistical realities, as women are far more likely to experience serious harm from someone they know than from a stranger. Dr Powell-Jones also discussed how many offenders have themselves experienced victimisation, such as abuse, while emphasising that being a victim does not inevitably lead to offending. We also learnt that around 82% of offending in the UK consists of re-offending, raising questions about the effectiveness of our prison system, especially given that it costs more than £60,000 per year to keep someone in prison, compared with an average UK salary of around £39,000.
Throughout the lecture, Dr Powell-Jones also presented many other thought-provoking questions which were fascinating to go away and reflect upon afterwards, such as “Would you want to live in a crime-free society?” and “What do you think is legal now that will be a crime in the future, and vice versa?”. I found these questions particularly interesting because they encouraged me to think about how crime is defined and understood, and how ideas and perceptions of crime evolve alongside wider social values and attitudes.
Overall, the lecture provided a fascinating insight into the diverse field of criminology, challenging many of my preconceptions about crime, and I am very grateful to Dr Holly Powell-Jones for taking the time to share her expertise with us.
By Emma Richards Y12
