Kent’s new\u00a0Criminal Justice Group, launched at\u00a0a guest lecture event on corruption by Baroness Vivien Stern CBE, seeks\u00a0to ‘give a voice to those who would otherwise not be heard’.<\/p>\n
Convenor of the new interdisciplinary research group, Professor Dermot Walsh, said: ‘Our research seeks to challenge the current orthodoxies and official policies in all areas of criminal justice; to expose the distorting influence of vested interests; to highlight abusive discrimination and corruption; and to identify and critique the ideologies that inform and drive current criminal justice policies and frameworks.<\/p>\n
‘In short we aim to make a qualitative and very necessary contribution to an enlightened and fair criminal justice system and to the good of society as a whole – and most especially we aim to give a voice to those who would otherwise not be heard.’<\/p>\n
To mark the launch of the group, Baroness Stern<\/a> was invited to deliver a talk\u00a0entitled \u2018Grand Corruption and the Rule of Law: a Parliamentary Perspective\u2019 to an audience of staff, students and visitors at Kent’s Canterbury campus on Thursday. Baroness Stern is pictured with Professor Walsh and Associate Lecturer Dr Lucy Welsh, a Kent Law Clinic Solicitor who specialises in all matters of criminal justice.<\/p>\n Professor Walsh said: \u2018This event marks the emergence of a vibrant and productive research group at Kent Law School, composed of a large number of staff and PhD students working across an eclectic range of topics under the general rubric of criminal justice. What connects us all is a deep commitment to addressing fundamental issues of concern to the lives of individuals and communities in their local, national, EU and international environments.\u2019<\/p>\n Current research projects within the group cover:<\/p>\n A\u00a0dynamic and expanding body of PhD students is working in areas as diverse as: State surveillance, pre-trial detention in Kuwait, human trafficking in South-east Asia and domestic violence. Recent PhD completions include theses on cross-border police cooperation and the effects of legal aid cutbacks and procedural reforms on defendants in criminal cases in Magistrates Courts in East Kent.<\/p>\n Professor Walsh said: \u2018Our research in criminal justice also feeds into and is greatly benefited by the excellent work being done by Kent Law Clinic in the areas of: police complaints, criminal defendants who have been refused legal aid, prisoners and inquests.<\/p>\n ‘And all of this is complemented by taught Master’s streams in Criminal Justice<\/a> and in International Criminal Justice<\/a>.’<\/p>\n\n