Justice, Communities, Activism and Conflict (JCAC) Research Group

The Justice, Communities, Activism and Conflict (JCAC) Research Group aims to create an interdisciplinary and vibrant research culture, supporting research networks and bringing together researchers, both local within LSBU and beyond.

JCAC members include, but are not limited to, colleagues in Criminology, Politics, International Relations, Sociology and Law. We engage with key themes including social justice, activism, harms and resistance, including those positioned to localised, national and global conflict. We also focus on criminalised and/or marginalised individuals and groups, especially those who are already vulnerable and experiencing inequality.

JCAC members seek to work with and be guided by communities in diverse settings, who bring their valuable lived experiences to an intersectional understanding, enabling us to engage with research and policy that includes being guided by the principles of participatory, activist and non-hierarchical methodology.

Current research interests of members include but are not limited to: vicarious trauma experienced by women probation officers working with women, racialised policing in London schools, music within the penal setting, and decolonising the curriculum, particularly within disciplines such as criminology, where its history is entwined with racialised Othering.

JCAC engages regularly through seminar discussions, inviting guests and holding public events. Previous events have included a symposium entitled ‘Policing in Crisis?’ enabling the lived experiences of different communities to be heard. We are currently preparing an event entitled Law & Activism due to take place in 2025 that speaks to the heart of many of our members driving principles in joining social justice with academia and working with and for communities.

Our group develops research and public engagement across some of the following themes

  • Town planning law and community and social structures exacerbating inequality
  • The dynamics of resistance within settler colonial states and the intersection of law and violence.
  • Activist criminology and the importance of co-productive knowledge
  • History of female activism, female networks and women’s social movements in Britain and Ireland.
  • Decolonising Criminology in HE.

Spycops: Secrets and Disclosure in the Undercover Policing Inquiry

Please join the Justice, Communities, Activism and Conflict Research Group on Wednesday 13 November, 12-1.30pm in K-503 for a book discussion: Spycops: Secrets and Disclosure in the Undercover Policing Inquiry with Raphael Schlembach (University of Brighton).