Laura Bainbridge

Laura Bainbridge is a Lecturer in Criminal Justice in the School of Law at the University of Leeds. Laura’s scholarly interests lie at the nexus between social policy, criminology and political science. She is currently the PI on two studies. The first is a N8 PRP funded project dedicated to understanding and preventing County Lines ‘cuckooing’ victimisation, while the second explores the benefits and hazards of mandating domestic violence perpetrators to a period of compulsory sobriety. Laura is also a Co-I and the ECR Champion for the recently launched ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre.

Laura is the founder and chair of the UK Compulsory Sobriety Network. In addition, she sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Social Policy, is a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform’s Research Advisory Group, and has a seat on the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit’s Advisory Board.

As an impact-focussed researcher, Laura has successfully disseminated her findings to UK government ministers, civil servants, Members of Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioners. At the international level, she has been invited to share her insights with crime and justice practitioners located in the United States, Canada, Poland and Belgium, and has acted as an advisor to the Australian Government’s Behavioural Insights Team.