Academic Profile

I studied law at Kingston University, graduating with an LLB (Hons) in 1997. Having developed an interest in socio-legal studies as an undergraduate, I came to Sheffield in 1998 to undertake the MA in Socio-Legal Studies in the Department of Law. I remained in Sheffield to complete my PhD these on the topic of the fear of plastic card fraud and I have been working as a lecturer since 2001. I am actively involved in research in a number of fields (see grant and publication summaries below) and I also have a strong interest in Teaching and Learning Development. I have also led four major Knowledge Exchange projects with South Yorkshire Police. I am the Programme Director for the LLB (Law and Criminology).

Member of the Centre for Criminological Research Cluster.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Sheffield
• PCHE, University of Sheffield
• MA (Socio Legal Studies), University of Sheffield
• LLB (Hons), Kingston University

Research Interests

• Policing (projects to date have included graffiti reduction programmes, restorative justice, neighbourhood policing and confidence and satisfaction measures).
• Research Methods
• The Fear of Crime
• Plastic Card Fraud and Identity Theft

Key Publications

Semmens, N. (2011) Methodological approaches to criminological research. In, Davies, P., Francis, P. and Jupp,V., Doing Criminological Research (2nd Edition), Sage Publications. (In Press).

Semmens, N. (2010) Identity theft and fraud. In Brookman, F., Bennett, T., Maguire, M. and Pierpoint, H.) Handbook of Crime, Willan Publishing, pp 172-190.

Crow, I. and Semmens, N. (2008) Researching Criminology, Mcgraw-Hill (Open University Press), 334 pages.

Semmens, N. (2007) Towards an understanding of ‘fear’ as an intangible cost of crime. International Review of Victimology, 14(2), 219-236.

Semmens, N. (2006) Identity Theft and Fraud. In Thompson, T. and Black, S. (Eds) Forensic Human Identification: An Introduction, Taylor and Francis: Boca Raton, Fla. , pp. 405-414.

Semmens, N., Dilane, J. and Ditton, J. (2002) Preliminary findings on Seasonality and the fear of crime: A research note. British Journal of Criminology, 42, pp. 798-806.

Recent Invited Papers and Keynote Lectures

Spooner, M., Baird, K. and Semmens, N. (2009) ‘Tag, you’re out! Innovative responses to graffiti in an English town’, invited paper for the 2009 International Problem-Oriented Policing Conference, Anaheim (California), November 2nd- 4th.

Semmens, N., Hunter, M., Smart, E, Wright, T, (2008) ‘The development of Neighbourhood Policing training and evaluation in South Yorkshire’, invited paper for the Problem Oriented Policing Conference, Leicester, 8th September 2008 .

Key Projects/Grants

Awarding Body: The Home Office
People Involved: Dr Natasha Semmens, Charlotte Ware
Title of Research: Evaluation of the Barnsley Alcohol Reduction Restorative Justice Initiative (BARJI)
Years funded for: January-March 2009
Amount: £5173.91

Awarding Body: EPSRC
People Involved: Mr. Angus Marshall (Teeside), Dr. Natasha Semmens (Sheffield) Mr. Brian Tompsett (Hull)
Title of Research: Cyberprofiling: Offender and Geographic Profiling of Crime on the Internet
Years funded for: 1 (Sept 2005-6)
Amount: £167,199

Awarding Body: The UK Information Commissioner
People Involved: Prof. R. Jenkins, Prof. C. Spencer, Mr. D. Townend, Dr. N.Semmens, Dr M. Taylor
Title of Research: What Are Personal Data?
Years funded for: Nov ember 2003 – March 2004
Amount: £20,000

Professional Activities and Recognition

• External Examiner for the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester.
• Senate Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
• CILASS Fellowship in IBL.
• South Yorkshire Police Partnership Award.
• Member of the Independent Academic Advisory Group on Neighbourhood Policing, which provides independent expert advice to ACPO, the Home Office and police forces, on the development, implementation and evaluation of neighbourhood policing, including the development of theories, concepts, methodology and data collection.
• In 2001-2, I acted as consultant to the Home Office on a 'Crimes of the Future' project, including members of the Police Research Group and the Department of Trade and Industry.
• In 2000-1, I was a Consultant Project Manager for NACRO, involving project design, data analysis and production of the final reports for two large national surveys.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Understanding Law 1
• White Collar Crime
• Introducing Criminological Research

I am heavily involved in Teaching and Learning Development. I am a strong proponent of research-led and research-based teaching and attach great importance to the involvement of my students in my research activities. I have taken a leading role in teaching innovation in the School and have made a significant contribution to the University’s Teaching and Learning Strategy.

Areas of Research Supervision

• Pre-emptive Surveillance of Children in the UK
• The Regulation of Child Pornography on the Internet
• The Drink-Driving Offences.

I welcome new research proposals in the area of policing.