Staff profiles
Professor Malcolm Cowburn
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
BA, MA, CQSW, MPhil, PhD
Phone 0114 225 5598
Email m.cowburn@shu.ac.uk
I have three main areas of research interest
- Sex offenders and sexual violence; this involves thinking about how sexual violence and sex offenders are socially constructed. This requires addressing both psychological and sociological understandings of sexual harm. I am interested in finding ways to incorporate both of these approaches to sexual violence into different ways of thinking about men, male behaviours, male sex offenders and community safety.
- Prisons and the management of diversity. I have jointly been awarded two ESRC grants to explore these issues. Links ot the various reports can be found below. I am increasingly interested in understanding the intersections of identities - race, ethnicity, faith, gender, sexuality, disability and age - and how these can cast light on the ways in which prisoners manage their time in gaol.
- Research/applied ethics. The two areas mentioned above have required detailed and rigorous exploration of the ethical issues underpinning research practice. Of prime concern has been the tension between allowing research participants to seek openly and freely whilst ensuring that the research did not collude with intended or ongoing harm to other people.
Involvement in national organisations
- Member of the National Social Care Research Ethics Committee (SCREC)
- Chair of the British Society of Criminology Ethics Committee
- National Trustee of Circles UK (from July 2011)
Recent research projects
2010 Northern Rock Evaluation of 'Melting Pot' project HMP Frankland £7,000 - project consultant
2010 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Knowledge Exchange Small Grants. Opening up communicative space: towards a collaboratively generated impact in responding to Diversity in HMP Wakefield. Award number: RES-192-22-0047. Co-investigator; Principal Investigator Dr Victoria Lavis, University of Bradford. £3,876
2009 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Appreciative inquiry into the Diversity Strategy of HMP Wakefield. Award number RES-000-22-3441. Principal Investigator; (Co-investigator Dr Victoria Lavis, University of Bradford); £79,719.27. (March–November 2009)
2009 Leicester City Council Consultancy re Sexual Safety Strategy. Hallam Centre for Community Justice
2009 General Social Care Council. Professional Boundaries. Research team led by Professor Mark Doel, Sheffield Hallam University
2006–2007 'Ethics and Research with Perpetrators of Sexual Violence'. Research partner with the Tema Institute, Linköping University, Sweden. Sexual Violence Research Initiative. Funded by Global Forum for Health Research
Research medals/prizes
- 2011 Howard League Research Medal - Shortlisted candidate (with Dr Victoria Lavis); 14 June 2011
Visiting fellowship
- 2010 (one semester) Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Glasgow Caledonian
Journal editorships
- 2011 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology - guest editorial (April)
- 2010 Critical Social Policy 30 (2) (guest editor)
- 2008 (ongoing) Journal of Sexual Aggression - associate editor
Recent publications (since 2001)
Refereed journals
2011 Perceiving the continuum of sexual harm and the need for varied responses to sexual violence. [Guest editorial] International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 55, (2) 179-181
2010 Social Work Admissions: applicants with criminal convictions - the challenge of ethical risk assessment (with Pete Nelson) British Journal of Social Work 40 (4), 1081-1099
2010 Principles, virtues and care: ethical dilemmas in research with male sex offenders Psychology, Crime and Law 16, 1-2, 65-74
2010 Invisible men: social reactions to male sexual coercion - bringing men and masculinities into community safety and public policy. Critical Social Policy 30(2), 225-244
2009 - Race relations in prison: managing performance and developing engagement (with Victoria Lavis) British Journal of Community Justice, Volume 7 Issue 3
2009 - Professional boundaries: crossing a line or entering the shadows? (with Mark Doel, Peter Allmark, Paul Conway, Margaret Flynn, Pete Nelson, and Angela Tod) British Journal of Social Work 40 (6): 1866-1889
2008 - BME sex offenders in prison: the problem of participation in offending behaviour groupwork programmes - a tripartite model of understanding. British Journal of Community Justice, 6 (1), 19-34
2007 - Safe recruitment, social justice, and ethical practice: should people who have criminal convictions be allowed to train as social workers? (with Peter Nelson) Social Work Education 27 (3), 293-306
2007 - Men Researching Men in Prison: The Challenges For Profeminist Research. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 46 (3) 276-288
2005 - Hegemony and discourse: reconstruing the male sex offender and sexual coercion by men. Sexualities, Evolution and Gender 7, 3, 215-231
2005 - Confidentiality and public protection: ethical dilemmas in qualitative research with adult male sex offender Journal of Sexual Aggression 11, 1, 49-63
2004 - Disciplining, Chastisement and Physical Child Abuse: Perceptions and Attitudes of the British Pakistani Community (with Shazia Irfan - first author) Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Volume 24, No. 1, April 2004, 89-98
2001 - Masking Hegemonic Masculinity: Reconstructing The Paedophile As The Dangerous Stranger (with Lena Dominelli) British Journal of Social Work 31, 399-414
Chapters in edited books
2011 What's Happening in Men's Work in the UK? Reflections on Policies and Processes. In Ruspini, E., Hearn, J., Pease, B. and Pringle, K. (eds) Men and masculinities around the world: transforming men's practices. Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan (with Carole Wright)
2008 Groupwork with male sex offenders in the 1980s. In Senior, P. 'Moments in Probation: celebrating the century of probation'. Crayford, Shaw and Sons Ltd.
2007 Ethics, research and policy. In Hodgson, S. M. and Irving, Z. Policy reconsidered: Meanings, politics and practices. Bristol, Policy Press
2007 Working With Perpetrators or Offenders in Flood, M.; Gardiner, J. K.; Pease, B.; Pringle, K. (eds) The Routledge International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities London, Routledge
2007 Pornography (with Michael Flood) in Flood, M.; Gardiner, J. K. ; Pease, B. ; Pringle, K. (eds) The Routledge International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities London, Routledge
2006 Constructive work with male sex offenders: male forms of life, language games and change in Parton, N.; O'Byrne, P.; Gorman, K. and Gregory, M. (eds) 'Constructive Work with Offenders' London, Jessica Kingsley.
2005 A Man's world: Gender Issues in Working with Male Sex Offenders in Prison. In Britton, D. M. Gender and Prison. Aldershot, Ashgate. (reprint of 1998 Howard Journal paper)
2004 Normals' and 'Offenders': classification systems, complacency and critical masculinities. In Boran, A. and Murphy, B.; Gender in flux: Papers of the Second Chester Conference. Chester, Chester Academic Press
Other publications and reports
2010 Appreciative Inquiry into the Diversity Strategy of HMP Wakefield - RES-000-22-3441. Economic and Social Research Council; Impact Report (with Victoria Lavis).
2010 Appreciative Inquiry into the Diversity Strategy of HMP Wakefield - Report for HMP Wakefield (with Victoria Lavis)
2010 Appreciative Inquiry into the Diversity Strategy of HMP Wakefield - RES-000-22-3441. Economic and Social Research Council; End of Award Report (with Victoria Lavis and research assistance from Hayden Bird).
2009 Professional Boundaries: Research Report. GSCC funded research. Sheffield; Centre for Health and Social Care Research, Sheffield Hallam University.
2009 Preventing and responding to sexual violence in Leicester: draft strategy. (Unpublished report for Safer Leicester Partnership) Sheffield; Hallam Centre for Community Justice, Sheffield Hallam University (with Wilkinson, K., Davidson, J., Bains, H. and Ellingworth, D
2008 - Diversity Review: Thinking Skills Programme: Draft Facilitator Manual Version 4 (incorporating Self-control workbook, Problem Solving Workbook and Working with Others), and Participant Profile Handouts (2) (with Harpreet Bains). Report prepared for General Offending Behaviour Programmes Interventions Group, Ministry of Justice; UK
2008 - Black and Minority Ethnic Sex Offenders (with Victoria Lavis and Tammi Walker). Prison Service Journal, 178, 44-49
2007 - Guidelines for Researchers on Doing Research with Perpetrators of Sexual Violence (for the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, and The Global Forum for Health Research) (with Andersson, K. and Hearn, J.) Linköping, Linköping University, Sweden
2004 - Men masculinities and what men do: the relationship of critique and change (invited review essay). Sexualities, 7, 4 497-501
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