Liz Aston

I am the Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and an Associate Professor in Criminology. Until June 2018 I was Head of Social Sciences, and Depute Programme Leader for the MSc Applied Criminology and Forensic Psychology. I was a joint work package leader on ‘Unity’, a €4.6 million Horizon 2020 EC funded project on Community Policing and I recently conducted research on stop and search in Scotland. I am an active member of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research’s ‘Police Community Relations Brokering Team’ and Police Scotland’s ‘Research, Evaluation and Operational Review Group’

Prior to joining Edinburgh Napier University in 2011, I held a Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) Postdoctoral Research position at the Centre for Criminal Justice and Police Studies, the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). I have also worked as a Researcher at the Medical Research Council’s Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow. My ESRC CASE award PhD was linked to ‘The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime’.

My research interests are focused around intersections between criminal justice, health and broader social policies. I have conducted research on the relationship between substance use and offending; community policing; stop and search; local policing in Scotland; and youth diversionary projects.