Dr Trish Gray

Patricia Gray was a Reader in Criminology and Criminal Justice. She joined the University of Plymouth in 1998 and previously worked at the University of Hong Kong.

Qualifications

Patricia graduated with an MA (Hons) in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh and an MA in Applied Social Studies (incorporating a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work) from the University of Warwick . She was awarded a PhD in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bristol . After completing her undergraduate degree, Patricia worked as a Social Worker in Glasgow for four years. Her work mainly centred on interventions with young offenders. She then went to Hong Kong where she taught at the Hong Kong Baptist University and the University of Hong Kong before joining the University of Plymouth in 1998.

Professional membership

Patricia is a member of the Youth Criminology/Youth Justice network of the British Society of Criminology, the Juvenile Justice Thematic Working Group of the European Society of Criminology; the British Society of Criminology Women, Crime and Criminal Justice network and  the Howard League for Penal Reform. She set up the Howard League Student Society at Plymouth University in 2011.

Roles on external bodies

Reviewer for Research Councils:

 a. External reviewer for the Research Grants Council (equivalent to the ESRC in UK) in Hong Kong since 2008.

 b. Reviewer for the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) in UK since 2010.

 c. Reviewer for Nuffield Foundation research since 2019.

 External Examination and Consultancy:

 a. External Examiner for the undergraduate Criminology Programme at Queens University Belfast (2017-present).

 b. External Examiner for 3 successful PhD Awards at the Universities of Lancaster (2018), Liverpool (2017) and Southampton Solent (2016).

 Article Reviewer:

 Patricia has reviewed for the following journals: Punishment and Society; European Journal of Criminology; Youth Justice: An International Journal; Policy and Politics; Crime Prevention and Community Safety; Asian Journal of Criminology; Journal of Youth Studies; Contemporary Social Science; The Journal of Social Policy; European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research; Hong Kong Journal of Social Work; International Journal of Rural Crime; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Children and Youth Services Review; Howard Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Book Reviewer for Routledge Publishing, Howard Journal, Policy Press, and International Journal of Social Work Education.

Teaching interests

Patricia taught in four areas on the Criminology and Criminal Justice undergraduate programme, namely youth criminology and youth justice; comparative youth justice; penal theory and policy ; and gender and criminal justice. She also taught on the Masters Degree in Criminology  and is the Director of Studies for several postgraduate students, three of whom have recently successfully obtained PhDs.

Staff serving as external examiners

Patricia is an External Examiner for the Criminology programme at Queens University Belfast and External Reviewer for the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong. She has also acted as the External Examiner for 3 successful PhD Awards in recent years.

Research interests

Patricia's main research interests are in the areas of youth criminology and youth justice; comparative youth justice; penality and the governance of crime; risk, social exclusion and social justice; restorative justice; desistance, harm, rehabilitation and imprisonment; gender and criminal justice; and socio-legal issues.

She is currently engaged in two research projects which address the interrelationship between penality and political economy. The first which has been ongoing since 2016 maps and interrogates the restructuring of youth penality as part of the neoliberal socio-economic and political project. The second explores how the prevailing neoliberal penal culture impacts on the rehabilitation process in British prisons. Both have resulted in several publications in refereed journals. See research reports below and publications.