LSE Law School has a distinguished tradition of teaching and scholarship in criminal law and criminal justice, and current members of the criminal law group work across the fields of contemporary criminal law, the history and theory of criminal law, criminal evidence, criminology and criminal justice policy. The law school pioneered the study and teaching of criminology in the British Isles, when Hermann Mannheim was appointed to LSE in 1935. Mannheim had been a distinguished judge in Germany, and taught criminal law at the University of Berlin, before becoming a refugee from Hitler in 1934. He was a forerunner of the projects of uniting empirical social science and doctrinal scholarship, bringing to bear a multi-disciplinary analysis – an approach which remains a hallmark of our distinctive approach. Mannheim was also concerned with contributing to the development of policy, and pioneered comparative study of crime and criminal justice. His legacy lives on in the LSE Mannheim Centre for Criminology, founded in 1990, which brings together the research and teaching of LSE Law School with a rich array of distinguished scholars in the field and in the LSE's Departments of Social Policy, Sociology and indeed across the School. Fuller details of the Mannheim Centre's activities can be found on the Mannheim website . Members of LSE Law School and the Mannheim Centre have been heavily involved in the editing and writing of The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, the leading text in the subject, now in its fifth edition. Our members have published widely in the areas of criminal law theory, comparative study of criminal justice, mentally disordered offenders, evidence, criminal procedure, policing, media and crime, political economy of crime and criminal justice policy. The law school's teaching and scholarship in criminal law is informed by this criminological and social science expertise, as it is by engagement with other disciplinary resources such as legal and political philosophy. Several of the law school's public international lawyers - notably Dr. Chaloka Beyani and Dr. Devika Hovell - have special interests in International Criminal Law (see Public International law). The Group runs the Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Theory Forum. There is also a monthly programme of distinguished outside speakers organised by the Mannheim Centre in conjunction with the British Society of Criminology.
Faculty
Dr Abenaa Owusu-Bempah
Professor Jeremy Horder
Professor Nicola Lacey
Dr Richard Martin
Professor Jill Peay
Dr Federico Picinali
Dr Peter Ramsay
Professor Robert Reiner (Emeritus Professor)
Dr Roxana Willis
Visiting Faculty
Jonathan Fisher KC (Visiting Professor)
Research Students
Pascual Cortés
Michelle Hughes
Dimitris Moragiorgas
Valeria Ruiz
Recent publications
- Federico Picinali 'Evidential reasoning, testimonial injustice and the fairness of the criminal trial' Quaestio Facti. Revista Internacional Sobre Razonamiento Probatorio (2023)
- Abenaa Owusu Bempah ‘Prosecuting Rap: What Does the Case Law Tell Us?’ (2022) 41(4) Popular Music 427-445 [working paper available here]
- Federico Picinali Justice In-Between: A Study of Intermediate Criminal Verdicts (OUP, 2022)
- Peter Ramsay ‘La Presunción De Autoridad Del Soberano (También Conocida Como Presunción De Inocencia)’ (2021) 6(11) En Letra: Derecho Penal, 197-224
- Federico Picinali (with Jules Holroyd) 'Implicit Bias, Self-Defence, and the Reasonable Person' in C. Lernestedt and M. Matravers (eds.), The Criminal Law’s Person (Hart, 2022)
- Abenaa Owusu Bempah ‘The Irrelevance of Rap’ (2022) Criminal Law Review pp.130- 151
- Nicola Lacey 'Getting Proportionality in Perspective: Philosophy, History and Institutions' 50 Crime and Justice (ed. Michael Tonry) [working paper here]
- Nicola Lacey, with Hanna Pickard, 'Why Standing to Blame May Be Lost but Authority to Hold Accountable Retained: Criminal Law as a Regulative Public Institution' (2021) 104 The Monist 265-280
- Jeremy Horder 'Online Free Speech and the Suppression of False Political Claims' (2021) 8(1) Journal of International and Comparative Law 15-52
- Jeremy Horder 'The Scope of Liability for Failure to Prevent Economic Crime' (2021) Criminal Law Review 851-65 (with Gabriele Watts, co-author)
- Richard Martin 'The Public Order Provisions of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Court Bill: A “modest reset of the scales”?' (2021) Criminal Law Review, 12, 1003-1022
- Federico Picinali 'Excluding Evidence for Integrity’s Sake? (with Jules Holroyd), in C. Dahlman, A. Stein, G. Tuzet (eds.) The Philosophical Foundations of Evidence Law (OUP 2021)
- Federico Picinali 'The Presumption of Innocence: A Deflationary Account' (2021) 84 Modern Law Review 708
- Jill Peay and Elaine Player (2021) ‘”Not a Stain on your Character?”: The Finality of Acquittals and the Search for Just Outcomes’ Criminal Law Review 11, 921-944
- Richard Martin ‘Righting the police: How do officers make sense of human rights?’ British Journal of Criminology, Online First (August 2021), 1-17.
- Richard Martin ‘When police kill in the line of duty: mistaken belief, professional misconduct and ethical duties after R(W80)’ (2021) Criminal Law Review, 8, 662-683
- Richard Martin ‘Testing the Limits of the Common Law Right to Trial by Jury: A Critical Analysis of Re Hutchings’ (with K. Laird) (2021) Public Law 88-105
- Richard Martin ‘Administrative Decision-Making on the Frontline’ in The Oxford Handbook of Administrative Justice, (eds) Tomlinson, J., Thomas, R. Hertogh, M. and Kirkham R. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 1-20
- Richard Martin Policing Human Rights: Law, Narratives and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2021)
- NIcola Lacey 'William Twining and the Law in Context Series: a personal reflection' (2020) International Journal of Law in Context 1-5
- Nicola Lacey 'Approaching or Rethinking the Terrain of Criminal Law?' (2020) Criminal Law and Philosophy (14) 307-18
- Robert Reiner Social Democratic Criminology (Routledge 2020)
- Abenaa Owusu-Bempah 'Understanding the Barriers to Defendant Participation in Criminal Proceedings in England and Wales' (2020) Legal Studies pp.1–21
- Orla Lynskey 'Criminal justice profiling and EU data protection law: precarious protection from predictive policing' International Journal of Law in Context (2019) 15(2) 162-176
- B.Bowling, R. Reiner and J.Sheptycki The Politics of the Police 5th.ed. (Oxford University Press, 2019)
- Owusu-Bempah, A, Walters, MA and Wiedlitzka, S, ‘Racially and Religiously Aggravated Offences: “God’s gift to defence”?’ (2019) Criminal Law Review pp.463-485
- Peter Ramsay 'Civilisation Through Criminalisation: Understanding Liberalism’s Dystopian Tendency' (2019) 10(1) Jurisprudence 91
- Jeremy Horder 'Ministers' business appointments and criminal misconduct' Crim. L.R. 2019, 4, 272-290
- Jill Peay 'Pleading Guilty: Why Vulnerability Matters'M.L.R. 2018, 81(6), 929-957 (with Elaine Player)
- Abenaa Owusu-Bempah, M.A. Walters, S. Wiedlitzka 'Hate Crime and the "Justice Gap": The Case for Law Reform' (2018) Criminal Law Review pp.958-983
- Abenaa Owusu-Bempah 'How to Reinstate the Right of Silence' in JJ Child and RA Duff (eds.) Criminal Law Reform Now: Proposals & Critique (Hart, 2018) pp.270-278
- Federico Picinali 'Can the Reasonable Doubt Standard be Justified? A Reconstructed Dialogue'Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence (2018) 31 (2) pp.365-402
- Jeremy Horder 'Criminal Law and Republican Liberty: Philip Pettit’s Account'LSE Law Working Papers 10/2018
- Abenaa Owusu-Bempah 'The Interpretation and Application of the Right to Effective Participation' (2018) 22 (4) International Journal of Evidence and Proof pp.321-341
- Robert Reiner 'Critical political economy, crime and justice' in Walter S. DeKeseredy and Molly Dragiewicz eds. Routledge Handbook of Critical Criminology 2nd ed. 2018 London: Routledge pp. 19-29.
- Devika Hovell 'The authority of universal jurisdiction'LSE Law Working Paper Series 08/2018 (forthcoming European Journal of International Law)
- Nicola Lacey 'Understanding the Determinants of Penal Policy: Crime, Culture and Comparative Political Economy'Annual Review of Criminology (2018) 1:22.1–22.23 (with David Soskice and David Hope)
- Nicola Lacey 'In Dialogue with Criminal Responsibility': Response to symposium on my In Search of Criminal Responsibility Critical Analysis of Law 4 (2) (2017) (overall symposium index available here)
- NIcola Lacey 'Criminalization: historical, legal and criminological perspectives', in Alison Liebling, Shadd Maruna and Lesley McAra (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (6th edition 2017) 57-76 (with Lucia Zedner)
- Peter Ramsay 'Is Prevent a Safe Space?' (2017) 12(2) Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 143
- Jeremy Horder Criminal Misconduct in Office (Oxford University Press, 2018)
- Insa Koch 'Moving beyond punitivism: Punishment, state failure and democracy at the margins'Punishment & Society Vol. 19(2) pp.203-220
- Federico Picinali 'Do Theories of Punishment Necessarily Deliver a Binary System of Verdicts? An Exploratory Essay'Criminal Law and Philosophy (2017)
- Meredith Rossner 'The dock on trial: courtroom design and the presumption of innocence'Journal of Law and Society (2017) 44 (3). pp. 317-344 (with David Tait, Blake McKimmie and Rick Sarre)
- Abenaa Owusu-Bempah Defendant Participation in the Criminal Process (Routledge, 2017)
- Jeremy Horder 'R v Bembridge' in Handler, Mares and Williams (eds), Landmark Cases in Criminal Law (2017)
- Meredith Rossner 'Restorative Justice in the 21st Century: making emotions mainstream. In A. Liebling, L. McAra, S. Maruna (ed) Oxford Handbook of Criminology, 6th Edition (2017)
- Meredith Rossner 'The Victim in Restorative Justice: directions and developemnts'. In S. Walklate, Routledge Handbook of Victims and Victimology, 2nd ed. (2017)
- Jacco Bomhoff 'Beyond Proportionality: Thinking Comparatively About Constitutional Review and Punitiveness' in Vicki Jackson and Mark Tushnet (eds.), Proportionality: New Frontiers, New Challenge (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
- Jeremy Horder (ed) Ashworth's Principles of Criminal Law (8th ed). (2016)
- Insa Koch 'Moving beyond punitivism: Punishment, state failure and democracy at the margins' Punishment & Society Vol. 19(2) pp.203-220
- Nicola Lacey 'Rechtswissenschaft, Geschichte und die institutionelle Natur des Rechts' Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie (2016), 64 (2) pp.258-72
- Nicola Lacey In Search of Criminal Responsibility: Ideas, Interests and Institutions (Oxford University Press, 2016)
- Nicola Lacey 'Responsibility without Consciousness'Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2015)
- Nicola Lacey 'Socializing the Subject of Criminal Law: Criminal Responsibility and the Purposes of Criminalization' (2016) 99 (3) Marquette Law Review 541-57
- Jill Peay 'Responsibility, Culpability and the Sentencing of Mentally Disordered Offenders: Objectives in Conflict' Criminal Law Review (2016) Issue 3 pp.152-164
- Jill Peay 'The Ethics of Criminalisation: intentions and consequences' in Jonathan Jackson and Jonathan Jacobs (eds) Handbook of Criminal Justice Ethics (Routledge, 2016) (with Elaine Player)
- Federico Picinali 'Generalisations, causal relationships and moral responsibility'The International Journal of Evidence & Proof (2016) 20 (2) pp.121-135.
- Federico Picinali 'Generalisations, causal relationships and moral responsibility'The International Journal of Evidence & Proof (2016) 20 (2) pp.121-135
- Peter Ramsay 'A Democratic Theory of Imprisonment' in A Dzur, I Loader, R Sparks (eds), Democratic Theory and Mass Incarceration (OUP, 2016)
- Meredith Rossner and David Tait 'Making Sense of the Evidence: Jury Deliberation and Common Sense' In D. Tait and J. Goodman-Delahunty. Juries, Science and Popular Culture in the Age of Terror. London: Palgrave-McMillan (2016)
- Meredith Rossner and David Battye 'How Juries Talked About Visual Evidence'. In D. Tait and J. Goodman-Delahunty. Juries, Science and Popular Culture in the Age of Terror. London: Palgrave-McMillan (2016)
- Meredith Rossner and David Tait 'Tablets in the Jury Room: Enhancing Performance while Undermining Fairness?' In Karim Benyekhlef, Jane Bailey, Jacquelyn Burkell, Fabien Gélinas, eAccess to Justic, Univesity of Ottowa Press (2016)
- Meredith Rossner 'Community Participation in Restorative Justice: Rituals, Reintegration, and Quasi-Professionalization' Victims & Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy, and Practice (2016) (with Jasmine Bruce)
- Andrew Scott Newsgathering: Law, Regulation and the Public Interest (Oxford University Press, 2016) (with Gavin Millar QC)
- Jeremy Horder 'Excusing information-provision crimes in the bureaucratic state' Current Legal Problems (2015) 68 (1). pp. 197227.
- Jeremy Horder 'When sexual infidelity triggers murder: examining the impact of homicide law reform on judicial attitudes in sentencing'Cambridge Law Journal (2015) (with Kate Fitz-Gibbon)
- Nicola Lacey 'The Chimera of Proportionality: Institutionalising Limits on Punishment in Contemporary Social and Political Systems'Modern Law Review(2015) 78(2) pp.216-240 (with Hanna Pickard)
- Nicola Lacey 'To Blame or to Forgive? Reconciling Punishment and Forgiveness in Criminal Justice'Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2015) (with Hanna Pickard)
- Nicola Lacey 'Crime, punishment and segregation in the United States: The paradox of local democracy'Punishment & Society 2015, Vol. 17(4) 454-481 (with David Soskice)
- Emmanuel Melissaris 'Posthumous “punishment”’: What can be done about criminal wrongs after the wrongdoer’s death' Criminal Law & Philosophy(2017) 11 (2) pp.313-329
- Linda Mulcahy 'Docile Suffragettes? Resistance to Police Photography and the Possibility of Object–Subject Transformation' Feminist Legal Studies (April 2015)
- Paul MacMahon 'The Inquest and the Virtues of Soft Adjudication'Yale Law and Policy Review, 2015
- Jill Peay 'Sentencing Mentally Disordered Offenders: Conflicting Objectives, Perilous Decisions and Cognitive Insights'LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 01-2015
- Federico Picinali 'Base-rates of Negative Traits: Instructions for Use in Criminal Trials'Journal of Applied Philosophy (2016) 33 (1) pp.69-87
- Federico Picinali 'The threshold lies in the method: Instructing jurors about reasoning beyond reasonable doubt' The International Journal of Evidence and Proof (2015) 19 (3) 139-153
- Peter Ramsay 'Imprisonment and Political Equality' LSE Law Society and Economy Working Paper Series, 08-2015