Bill Dixon

Contact

• workRoom B11 Law and Social Sciences
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 95 15403
• William.Dixon@nottingham.ac.uk
• https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sociology/people/william.dixon

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

• DIXON, BILL, 2024. Using theory from the Global South: From social cohesion and collective efficacy to ubuntu Theoretical Criminology. 28(3), 267-286
• DIXON, BILL, 2024. Colonial Confessions: An Autoethnography of Writing Criminology in the New South Africa British Journal of Criminology. 64(5), 1063-1079
• DIXON, BILL, 2020. Who Needs Critical Friends?: Independent Advisory Groups in the Age of the Police and Crime Commissioner Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. 14(3), 686-697
• CARRINGTON, KERRY, DIXON, BILL, FONSECA, DAVID, RODRIGUEZ GOYES, DAVID, LIU, JIANHONG and ZYSMAN, DIEGO, 2019. Criminologies of the Global South: Critical Reflections Critical Criminology. 27(1), 163-189

• View all 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.

• DIXON, BILL, 2024. Using theory from the Global South: From social cohesion and collective efficacy to ubuntu Theoretical Criminology. 28(3), 267-286
• DIXON, BILL, 2024. Colonial Confessions: An Autoethnography of Writing Criminology in the New South Africa British Journal of Criminology. 64(5), 1063-1079
• DIXON, BILL, 2020. Who Needs Critical Friends?: Independent Advisory Groups in the Age of the Police and Crime Commissioner Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. 14(3), 686-697
• DIXON, BILL, 2019. Power, politics and the police: lessons from Marikana Journal of Modern African Studies. 57(2), 203-221
• CARRINGTON, KERRY, DIXON, BILL, FONSECA, DAVID, RODRIGUEZ GOYES, DAVID, LIU, JIANHONG and ZYSMAN, DIEGO, 2019. Criminologies of the Global South: Critical Reflections Critical Criminology. 27(1), 163-189
• DIXON, BILL, 2015. A Violent Legacy: Policing Insurrection in South Africa from Sharpeville to Marikana British Journal of Criminology. 55(6), 1131-1148
• DIXON, BILL, 2015. Making further inquiries: Policing in context in Brixton and Khayelitsha South African Crime Quarterly. 53, 5-14
• DIXON, BILL, 2013. Waiting for Farlam: Marikana, social inequality and the relative autonomy of the police South African Crime Quarterly. 46, 5-11
• DIXON, BILL, 2013. The Aetiological Crisis in South African Criminology Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology. 46(3), 319-334
• DIXON, BILL, 2012. Understanding ‘Pointy Face’: What is criminology for? South African Crime Quarterly. 3-10
• DIXON, BILL and GADD, DAVID, 2012. Look before you leap: Hate crime legislation reconsidered South African Crime Quarterly. 25-30
• GADD, DAVID and DIXON, BILL, 2011. Losing the Race: Thinking Psychosocially About Racially Motivated Crime Karnac.
• DIXON, BILL, 2010. Criminalizing social policy and socializing crime prevention in post-apartheid South Africa. In: SAGANT, VALERIE and SHAW, MARGARET, eds., International Report on Crime Prevention and Community Safety: Trends and Perspectives International Centre for the Prevention of Crime. 92-94
• GADD, DAVID and DIXON, BILL, 2009. Posing the ‘Why’ Question: Understanding the Perpetration of Racially Motivated Violence and Harassment. In: LEVIN, BRIAN, ed., Understanding and Defining Hate Crime 1. Praeger. 77-94
• DIXON, BILL, 2007. Globalising the local: A genealogy of sector policing in South Africa International Relations. 21(2), 163-182
• DIXON, BILL and GADD, DAVID, 2006. Getting the Message?: ‘New’ Labour and the Criminalization of ‘Hate' Criminology & Criminal Justice. 6(3), 309-328
• DIXON, BILL, 2006. Development, crime prevention and social policy in post-apartheid South Afric Critical Social Policy. 26(1), 169-191
• GADD, DAVID, DIXON, BILL and JEFFERSON, TONY, 2005. Why Do They Do It?: Racial Harassment in North Staffordshire Keele University.
• DIXON, BILL, 2004. Community policing: ‘Cherry pie’ or melktert? Society in Transition: Journal of the South African Sociological Association. 35(2), 251-272
• DIXON, BILL, 2004. In search of interactive globalisation: Critical criminology in South Africa’s transition Crime, Law and Social Change. 41(4), 359-384
• DIXON, BILL and VAN DER SPUY, ELRENA, eds., 2004. Justice Gained?: Crime and Crime Control in South Africa’s Transition Willan/UCT Press.
• DIXON, BILL, 2004. Introduction: Justice Gained? Crime, crime control and criminology in transition. In: DIXON, BILL and VAN DER SPUY, ELRENA, eds., Justice Gained?: Crime and Crime Control in South Africa’s Transition Willan/UCT Press. ix-xxxvii
• DIXON, BILL, 2004. Cosmetic crime prevention. In: DIXON, BILL and VAN DER SPUY, ELRENA, eds., Justice Gained?: Crime and Crime Control in South Africa’s Transition Willan/UCT Press. 163-192
• DIXON, BILL and RAUCH, JANINE, 2004. Sector Policing: Origins and Prospects: ISS Monograph No. 97 Institute for Security Studies. (1-9199913-44-0)
• DIXON, BILL, 2002. 'Not rocket science’: evaluating crime prevention’. In: PELSER, ERIC, ed., Crime Prevention Partnerships: Lessons from Practice Institute for Security Studies. 89-102
• IRVING, BARRIE and DIXON, BILL, 2002. Hotspotting: Turning Police Theory into Practice in Thames Valley and Northumbria The Police Foundation. (0-947692-33-9)
• DIXON, BILL, 2002. Cloud over the Rainbow: Crime and Transition in South Africa Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.
• DIXON, BILL, 2001. Exclusive societies: Towards a critical criminology of post-apartheid South Africa Society in Transition: Journal of the South African Sociological Association. 32(2), 205-227
• DIXON, BILL, 2001. From cafeteria to à la carte: The Law Commission’s new sentencing framework South African Journal of Criminal Justice. 14(2), 168-178
• DIXON, BILL and JOHNS, LISA-MARIE, 2001. Gangs, Pagad and the State: Vigilantism and Revenge Violence in the Western Cape
• DIXON, BILL, 2000. Accountable policing: A four-dimensional analysis South African Journal of Criminal Justice. 13, 69-83
• DIXON, BILL, 2000. Safety and Security: A Review Institute for the Study of Public Policy.
• DIXON, BILL, 2000. The Globalisation of Democratic Policing: Sector Policing and Zero Tolerance in the new South Africa Institute of Criminology, University of Cape Town.
• DIXON, BILL, 2000. Zero tolerance: The hard edge of community policing African Security Review. 9(3), 73-78
• DIXON, BILL and SMITH, GRAHAM, 1998. Laying down the law: The police, the courts and legal accountability International Journal of the Sociology of Law. 26(4), 419-435
• DIXON, BILL and STANKO, BETSY, 1995. Sector policing and public accountability Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy. 5(3), 171-183
• DIXON, BILL and STANKO, ELIZABETH, 1993. Serving the People: Sector policing and public accountability Centre for Criminal Justice Research, Brunel University.