Dr Matthew Bacon
Position: Lecturer in Criminology
Email Address: M.Bacon@sheffield.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)114 222 6828
Room No: EF13A
Academic Profile
I am a Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Law. I graduated with a PhD from the University of Sheffield in 2012. For my doctoral research, which was funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), I carried out an ethnographic study of police detectives, drug law enforcement and proactive investigation. Before joining the School of Law I worked as a Research Associate at the University of Manchester on a project looking at the contractual governance of drug users.
Qualifications
PhD in Criminology, University of Sheffield
MA in International Criminology (awarded with distinction), University of Sheffield
LLB (Hons), University of Durham
Teaching and Learning
One of the best parts of being an academic is being able to teach students about subject areas that I find fascinating and worthwhile. My approach to teaching is based on the need to challenge and stimulate students and this is reflected in the way I approach lectures, seminars and workshops. I am keen to promote independent learning and treat my students as intellectuals who have interesting and insightful ideas to bring to the debate. My teaching is very much informed by my research on policing, drug control policy and the informal economy. This enables me to teach with greater depth and enthusiasm, engage students in contemporary debates and real life issues, and ensure that their learning is up-to-date in terms of research, policy and practice. Emphasis is placed on helping students develop the skills, knowledge and understanding to make a difference in their future careers. I use a range of teaching methods and resources to appeal to different kinds of learning styles and to encourage student confidence and participation in classes.
The modules I teach are:
Research Interests
- Policing (in particular the occupational culture of the police, criminal investigation and covert policing practices)
- Illegal drug markets and drug control policy
- The informal economy
- Qualitative research methods
Member of the Centre for Criminological Research and the Cluster for Research on the Informal Sector and Policy.
Key Publications
Bacon, M. (forthcoming) Taking Care of Business: Police Detectives, Drug Law Enforcement and Proactive Investigation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bacon, M. (2013) The informal regulation of an illegal trade: the hidden politics of drug detective work. Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, 1/2013: 61-80
Bacon, M. (2013) Dancing Around Drugs: Policing the Illegal Drug Markets of the Night-Time Economy in the UK. In Saitta, P., Shapland, J. and Verhage, A. (eds.), Getting Rich or Getting By? The Formal, Informal and Criminal Economy in a Globalised World, The Hague: BJu Legal Publishers.
Bacon, M. (2013) Police culture and the policing context. In Brown, J. (ed.) The Future of Policing, London: Routledge.
Bacon, M. and Seddon, T. (2013) The Contractual Governance of Drug Users in Treatment. International Journal of Drug Policy
Skinns, L. and Bacon, M. (2010) Police and Policing in Cities in England and Wales. In Cools, M. et al. (eds.), Police, Policing, Policy and the City in Europe, The Hague: Eleven International Publishing.
Professional Activities and Recognition
I am a member of the international board of reviewers and a guest-editor for the Journals of Police Studies, a quarterly series that aims at publishing high-quality contributions about policing issues and phenomena that are of interest to the police. I am also an academic correspondent within the editorial advisory board of the forthcoming European Journal of Policing Studies.
I am an active member of the European GERN-network. I participated in the seminar series of a work package in the framework GERN-project CRIMPREV, realised in the 6th framework program of the EU, on the informal economy and its connections with organised crime.