School of Sociology and Social Policy
 

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Bill Dixon

Professor of Criminology, Faculty of Social Sciences

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Biography

Bill grew up in Northumberland in the north-east of England. He graduated with a BA in Law from Oxford University (Worcester College) and has an MA in Criminal Justice and a PhD from Brunel University. After working for third sector organisations in India and the UK, in local government, and as a researcher for the Law Society and the Police Foundation, Bill has held academic posts at Brunel University, the University of Cape Town and Keele University. He was appointed as Professor of Criminology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Nottingham in July 2014.

Expertise Summary

Bill has particular expertise in policing, southern and decolonial criminology and criminology, crime, crime control and criminal justice in South Africa.

Teaching Summary

Bill has taught on criminology and criminal justice programmes at six universities in three countries. His current responsibilities include convening or teaching on the following modules:

  • Social Science Uncovered 2 (Year 1 Undergraduate)
  • Southern Criminology: Decolonising the Study of Crime and Justice (Year 3 Undergraduate)
  • Dissertation in Sociology/Social Policy/Criminology (Year 3 Undergraduate)

Bill has has had academic administrative roles in learning and teaching for many years and is the Director of Education and Student Experience in the School of Sociology and Social Policy.

Research Summary

Bill's current research interests are in crime, crime control and the development of criminology in post-apartheid South Africa from southern/decolonial perspectives. His most recent work has… read more

Selected Publications

Current Research

Bill's current research interests are in crime, crime control and the development of criminology in post-apartheid South Africa from southern/decolonial perspectives. His most recent work has involved an autoethnographic reflection on his own career as a colonial criminologist and sought to undo some of the damage done by colonial epistemicides by using theory from the Global South to understand and respond to urban violence in the township of Khayelitsha in South Africa's Western Cape.

Past Research

Bill has done research in the past on a range of subjects including:

  • The governance and accountability of London's Metropolitan Police
  • Innovations in policing including sector policing (in London and South Africa) and problem-solving policing at 'hotspot' locations'
  • Context and motive in racially motivated offending
  • Police independent advisory groups
  • Crime, policing and police reform in post-apartheid South Africa with a particular emphasis on the massacre fo striking mineworkers at Marikana in August 2012

Future Research

Bill's future research will be on the meaning, significance and likely impact of international movements to defund the police in South Africa from a southern/decolonial perspective.

School of Sociology and Social Policy

Law and Social Sciences building
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

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