LSE Law School has a distinguished tradition of teaching and scholarship in criminal law and criminal justice. Members of the school engage in research and teaching that covers a wide range of perspectives, building on the LSE’s strong tradition of critical and social scientific thinking.
The Law School pioneered the study and teaching of criminology in Britain, when Hermann Mannheim was appointed to LSE in 1935. His legacy lives on in the LSE Mannheim Centre for Criminology, which brings together the research and teaching of LSE Law School with contributions from distinguished scholars in the field and in the LSE's Departments of Social Policy and Sociology. Members of LSE Law School and the Mannheim Centre have published widely – and offer graduate supervision - 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, corporate crime and criminal justice policy.
Past and honorary criminal law and justice teachers in the School have included Professor Michael Zander QC, Professor Leonard Leigh, Professor Jill Peay and Professor Mike Redmayne. Current members of the criminal law group work across the fields of history and contemporary theory of criminal law, criminal evidence, criminology and criminal justice. The Group runs the Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Theory Forum, at which scholars from around the world have an opportunity to present and debate their research. There is also a monthly programme of distinguished outside speakers organised by the Mannheim Centre with the British Society of Criminology.