PhD Researcher
Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology Room 3S3 Colin Bell Building 我要吃瓜 Stirling FK9 4LA
Jessica Cleary is an ESRC funded part-time Doctoral Researcher in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research within the Faculty of Social Sciences, 我要吃瓜. She has previously completed a Masters of Research in Applied Social Research (Criminology) and a BA with Honours in Criminology and Sociology.
Jessica's PhD aims to explore whether the gender-specific needs of women with convictions are catered for within national community justice policies and localised practices and services both imposed on and offered to women in the community across Scotland.
To do this, the project brings together secondary analysis of relevant emerging Scottish policies with the primary perspectives and experiences of strategic and frontline workers across a range of statutory and third sector community justice partners who supervise, support and work with criminalised women across Scotland.
Alongside her PhD Jessica has completed two doctoral internships. First in 2018, Jessica conducted a socio-legal doctoral training partnership evaluation for the SSCJR. Then in 2019 she worked as a member of the Data and Evidence team for the Independent Care Review evaluating and evidencing the methodologies employed throughout the review’s duration in partnership with Evaluate Support Scotland.
In 2022 Jessica was successfully granted a research award by the Mitacs Globalink UK Research and Innovation scheme to lead a research project at the Université Laval Canada, supported by Prof. Isabelle F.-Doufour, comparatively examining the considerations of gender within Criminal Justice approaches in both Scotland and Quebec.
Jessica’s research interests include:
The Sociology of Punishment and Criminalisation – institutional cultures, policies, practice and lived experiences
Prison Abolitionism and Social Justice
Women and Criminal Justice
Rehabilitation, Resettlement, (Re)integration and Desistance from crime
Qualitative methodologies
Article
Bridging brains: exploring neurosexism and gendered stereotypes in a mindsport
Punch S, Snellgrove M, Graham E, McPherson C & Cleary J (2023) Bridging brains: exploring neurosexism and gendered stereotypes in a mindsport. Leisure/Loisir, 47 (3), pp. 459-485. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2022.2160787
Research Report
Supporting Roots: Support for birth parents in Scotland
Critchley A, Grant M, Hardy M & Cleary J (2023) Supporting Roots: Support for birth parents in Scotland. Scottish Government. Edinburgh. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/research-and-analysis/2023/02/supporting-roots/documents/final-report-supporting-roots/final-report-supporting-roots/govscot%3Adocument/final-report-supporting-roots.pdf
Within the Faculty of Social Sciences at the 我要吃瓜 Jessica supports the teaching and marking on a number of undergraduate modules as both guest lecturer and teaching assistant including:
Gender, Crime and Justice;
Crimes of the Powerful;
The Development of Social Theory;
Punishment and Society;
Understanding Social Policy;
Social Differentiation; and
Crime and Criminal Justice.
Jessica also has experience as a Teaching Fellow in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Edinburgh Law School. In this post she was the course organiser for core and option MSc courses including:
Criminal Justice and Penal Processes Gender, Crime and Criminal Justice
She also supervised MSc and LLB dissertation students and was Academic Year Lead for 4th undergraduates.