Research Projects

Research partners and sponsors

The Research Centre has a national and international reputation for an innovative and varied portfolio of funded research. This has ranged from short-term commissions focused solely on legal issues for a single sponsor to participation in large multi-disciplinary and internationally delivered projects.

Past and present sponsors, associates and research partners include the UK, Bulgarian, Romanian and Latvian governments, the European Commission, ACPO/ACRO (Association of Chief Police Officers/Record Office), Eurojust, Europol, the Belgian National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology, the Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire (France), the Netherlands Forensic Institute, the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Sustainable Criminal Justice Solutions (a UK community interest company), together with the Leiden and Nottingham universities.

Some current projects

The ‘dark web’ project is a multi-national research project studying tensions between privacy and crime fighting on the TOR-network – free, open-source software for anonymous online communication. The team are exploring ways of ensuring evidence of international criminal activity can be collected effectively and efficiently exchanged between different criminal justice systems. Researchers from the Centre have also been invited to speak at Parliamentary briefings and have provided oral evidence to the Justice Committee on Brexit and implications for the criminal justice system.

Led by the Centre’s Director, Dr. Michael Stockdale, Professor Tim Wilson, Dr. Ashley Savage, and Chris Wood, the Centre is involved in a series of research projects coordinated with our colleague Derek Johnson in the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment. With a value to the University of some £350,000, this  programme of inter-disciplinary work is focused on transnational crime and criminal justice cooperation involving the exchange of forensic bioinformation within the EU, EEA and Switzerland:
(a) Geographical and socio-economic analysis of transnational crime (May 2012) in which Professor Wilson is a co-investigator
(b) Public policy issues arising from the exchange of DNA data (May 2013) in which Professor Wilson is the principal investigator
(c) Legal issues arising in respect of the international use of fingerprints for the investigation and trial of criminal offences (November 2013) in which Dr. Stockdale is the principal investigator and Chris Wood is a project funded research fellow.

An additional eight Faculty of Business and Law members of NCECJS are involved in this research as co-investigators.

Academic events organised by the Centre as part of this research include:

Public Policy Issues Arising From The Exchange Of DNA Data Under Prüm: Initial Consideration Of Key Issues (an international conference held on 1^st -3^rd July 2013 at Northumbria University).

Suspected Identities: Putting EU Fingerprint Cooperation in Legal, Sociological and Geographical Context (a socio-legal workshop on issues relating to the exchange of fingerprint data under the Prüm Council Decision held on 23^rd – 24^th October 2014 held at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Staszic Palace, Warsaw and jointly organised with and the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences).

With the financial support of the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme, European Commission – Directorate-General Home Affairs. 

Research of the international use of fingerprints for the investigation and trial of criminal offences has resulted in the creation of an international socio-legal research network. Further information will be available here soon.