Dr Sam King

Associate Professor in Criminology

Contact Details

• Email: sk532@le.ac.uk
• Office hours: By appointment

Personal details

I am a teaching-focused Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Criminology, University of Leicester. My teaching areas include: criminal justice; punishment and rehabilitation; and, youth crime and justice. I am interested in innovative and digital approaches to learning and teaching.

I obtained a First Class Honours degree in Social Policy from the University of Birmingham in 2005, before going on to complete an ESRC-accredited Masters in Research and a PhD. My doctoral research examined the impact of probation on the early transitions towards desistance.

I was appointed as a University Lecturer at Leicester in 2013, and before that I taught at the University of Derby and the University of Birmingham. I am currently supervising doctoral students in the areas of prisons, probation, sex offenders, border criminology, and criminal justice legislation.

Teaching

• Criminal Justice in Action (Undergraduate)
• Punishment & Rehabilitation (Undergraduate)

Administrative Responsibilities

• Director of Learning and Teaching

Research

• Desistance
• Probation

• Innovative methodologies in desistance research

• Offender management
• Narrative and identity construction

Evaluation of Hertfordshire C2 and Bedfordshire PI Integrated Offender Management (IOM) schemes, funded by The Dawes Trust (£29,864): The outcomes of this project informed the organisational and strategic delivery of IOM through Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Criminal Justice Boards. The outcomes were also considered by neighbouring counties in deciding whether to implement similar IOM strategies.

Evaluation of Anawim women’s community centre, funded by Birmingham City University (£10,000): This project offered a qualitative examination of the effectiveness of Anawim in supporting women desisting from crime.

Supervision

• Desistance
• Rehabilitation
• Offender Management
• Community resettlement (particularly involving the Third Sector)
• Probation supervision

Publications

King, S., Hopkins, M. and Cornish, N. (2018) ‘Can models of organizational change help to understand ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in community sentences? Applying Kotter’s model of organizational change to an Integrated Offender Management case study’, Criminology & Criminal Justice, 18 (3): 273-290.

King, S. (2014) Desistance Transitions and the Impact of Probation. Abingdon: Routledge.

King, S. (2013) ‘Perceptions of work as a route away from crime’. Safer Communities. 12 (3): 122-132.

King, S. (2013) ‘Early desistance narratives: primary desistance and identity reconstruction’. Punishment and Society. 15 (2): 147-165.

King, S. (2013) ‘Assisted Desistance: Experiences of Probation’. Probation Journal. 60 (2): 136-151.

King, S. (2013) ‘Transformative Agency and Desistance From Crime’. Criminology and Criminal Justice. 13 (3): 317-335.