Dr Xavier L'Hoiry

Law LLB, MA Criminology, PhD Criminology

Department of Sociological Studies

Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy

(He/him)

x.lhoiry@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6404

Room LG17, Elmfield Building

Full contact details

Dr Xavier L'Hoiry
Department of Sociological Studies
Room LG17
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU

Profile

Xavier joined the department as a Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy in September 2015. His principal areas of research are serious and organised crime, illicit entrepreneurship, policing and surveillance.

Having completed an undergraduate law degree at Durham University in 2006, Xavier's interests moved towards the sociology of deviance and the criminal justice system. As a result, he undertook an MA in Criminology at the University of Leeds before completing a PhD in Criminology at Teesside University.

Xavier's doctoral thesis was an ethnographic exploration of illicit entrepreneurship, focusing specifically on tobacco bootlegging and smuggling. This form of organised crime was compared against broader law enforcement and government understandings of organised criminality and the impact of these understandings upon police policy and practice.

He subsequently worked as a research associate at the University of Sheffield (with Professor Clive Norris) and the University of Leeds (with Professor Adam Crawford and Professor Stuart Lister) on international and domestic research projects concerning surveillance and policing.

Xavier currently teaches and researches in the areas of serious and organised crime, policing and surveillance and welcomes enquiries on these themes.

Research interests

A central theme of Xavier’s research is working alongside practitioners, with a view towards co-producing research outputs to ensure impact and value for research end-users. Xavier's research interests are centred around the following broad themes:

Serious and organised crime;
Illicit enterprise and entrepreneurship;
The illicit economy;
Policing;
Surveillance studies.

Following the completion of his doctoral studies, Xavier worked with Professor Clive Norris on an EU FP7 project. The project concerned several aspects of the ongoing development of surveillance technologies and the subsequent impact upon democracy with a particular focus on the democratic right of access to personal data. (Findings and publications)

In 2015, Xavier joined the University of Leeds, working with Professor Adam Crawford and Professor Stuart Lister on an ESRC Knowledge Exchange project concerning various aspects of policing including community engagement and partnership working as a dynamic for culture change. Working closely alongside West Yorkshire Police, the project was a pilot ahead of the development of the N8 Policing Research Partnership.

Since then, Xavier has completed a number of research projects which have involved working in close collaboration with colleagues in law enforcement (see Grants section below). These have included topics such as:

The feasibility of applying restorative approaches to organised crime offending (Findings);
Community policing in South Yorkshire (on behalf of South Yorkshire Police);
Cross-force collaborations in policing (on behalf of North East Transformation, Innovation and Collaboration);
The deployment of Body-Worn Cameras in Humberside (on behalf of Humberside Police);
The use of Adult Sexual Services websites to facilitate human trafficking and sexual exploitation (working alongside South Yorkshire Police).

Xavier continues to pursue various research interests in the fields of organised crime, policing and surveillance. He welcomes any research-related enquiries in these areas with a view to building greater partnerships with key stakeholders and research end-users and developing future research.

Publications

Edited books

Norris C, de Hert P, L'Hoiry XD & Galetta A (Eds.) (2017) The Unaccountable State of Surveillance: Exercising Access Rights in Europe. Springer International Publishing.

Journal articles

L’Hoiry X (2021) Corrigendum to: “It’s like I’m Having an Affair”: Cross-Force Police Collaborations as Complex Problems. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 15(3), 2000-2000.
Harrison K, L’Hoiry X & Santorso S (2021) Exploring the impact of body-worn video on the everyday behaviours of police officers. The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles.
L’Hoiry X (2021) ‘It’s like I’m having an affair’: Cross-force police collaborations as complex problems. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice.
Spiller K & L'Hoiry XD (2019) Watch groups, surveillance and doing it for themselves. Surveillance and Society, 17(3/4), 288-304. View this article in WRRO
D'Souza N & L'Hoiry X (2019) An area of untapped potential? The use of restorative justice in the fight against serious and organized crime : a perception study. Criminology & Criminal Justice. View this article in WRRO
L’Hoiry X (2018) Global organized crime. A 21st century approach (2nd edn). Policing and Society, 28(2), 244-246. View this article in WRRO
Crawford A & L'Hoiry XD (2017) Boundary crossing: networked policing and emergent ‘communities of practice’ in safeguarding children. Policing and Society: an international journal of research and policy, 27(6), 636-654. View this article in WRRO
L'Hoiry XD & Norris C (2015) The honest data protection officer's guide to enable citizens to exercise their subject access rights: lessons from a ten-country European study. International Data Privacy Law, 5(3), 190-204.
L'Hoiry XD (2013) "Shifting the stuff wasn't any bother": Illicit enterprise, tobacco bootlegging and deconstructing the British government's cigarette smuggling discourse. Trends in Organized Crime, 16(4), 413-434.
L'Hoiry XD (2012) Tobacco smuggling: A review of the literature. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 20(4), 415-444.
Spiller K & L'Hoiry X () Editorial: Visibilities and New Models of Policing. Surveillance & Society, 17(3/4), 267-271.
L'Hoiry X () Love Island, social media, and sousveillance : new pathways of challenging realism in reality TV. Frontiers in Sociology, 4. View this article in WRRO
L'Hoiry X, Moretti A & Antonopoulos G () Identifying Sex Trafficking in Adult Services Websites An Exploratory Study with a British Police Force. Trends in Organized Crime.

Chapters

Norris C & L’Hoiry X (2017) Exercising Citizen Rights Under Surveillance Regimes in Europe – Meta-analysis of a Ten Country Study, The Unaccountable State of Surveillance (pp. 405-455). Springer International Publishing
Norris C & L’Hoiry X (2017) Conclusion: The Law-in-Books, the Law-in-Action, and the Promise of Regulatory Reform, The Unaccountable State of Surveillance (pp. 479-499). Springer International Publishing
L’Hoiry X & Norris C (2017) Exercising Access Rights in the United Kingdom, The Unaccountable State of Surveillance (pp. 359-404). Springer International Publishing
L’Hoiry X & Norris C (2017) Introduction – The Right of Access to Personal Data in a Changing European Legislative Framework, The Unaccountable State of Surveillance (pp. 1-8). Springer International Publishing
L’Hoiry X & Norris C (2017) Methodological Remarks, The Unaccountable State of Surveillance (pp. 9-20). Springer International Publishing
Galetta A, de Hert P, Norris C & L’Hoiry X (2017) Mapping the Legal and Administrative Frameworks of Informational Rights in Europe – A Cross-European Comparative Analysis, The Unaccountable State of Surveillance (pp. 457-478). Springer International Publishing
() Big Data, Surveillance and Crisis Management Routledge
L'Hoiry X () Cressey, Donald SAGE Publications, Inc.

Reports

D’Souza N & L'Hoiry XD (2017) The Feasibility of Undertaking Restorative Approaches with Serious and Organised Crime Offending
Crawford A & L'Hoiry XD (2015) Partnerships in the Delivery of Policing and Safeguarding Children. An Exploratory Knowledge Platform for Policing: Exploiting Knowledge Assets, Utilising Data and Piloting Research Co-production
Norris C & L'Hoiry XD (2014) Exercising democratic rights under surveillance regimes

Website content

Norris C & L'Hoiry XD (2014) The data retention bill means we have no privacy rights at all.

Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries

L'Hoiry X (2013) Donald Cressey. In Encyclopedia of White-Collar and Corporate Crime SAGE Publications.
L'Hoiry X Tobacco Industry SAGE Publications, Inc..

Research group

Xavier is the Research Theme Lead for Social Inequalities and Social Ordering. This research theme is concerned with the nature and extent of class, age, place, gender, ethnic, and generation-based inequalities and the ways in which these are managed through formal and informal processes of social ordering. The theme runs several internal and external events throughout the year. Please see more information here (insert hyperlink to theme page).

Xavier encourages enquiries for postgraduate supervision in any area of criminology but is particularly keen to supervise projects concerning organised crime, illicit entrepreneurship, surveillance and policing.

To find out more about our PhD programmes, go to:

Studying for a PhD in Sociology

Grants

Title:	Awarding body:	Dates:	Amount:
Courting Young Magistrates	BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant	2020-2022	£6,682
Tackling the Developing World of Organised Crime Groups in a Multi-Agency Strategy	N8 Policing Research Partnerships Small Grants	2020-2021	£23,902
Identifying Sexual Trafficking Online	N8 Policing Research Partnerships Small Grants	2019-2020	£24,315
Evaluating Body-Worn Video in Humberside Police	N8 Policing Research Partnership Knowledge Exchange	2018-2020	£5,000
Investigating Cross-force Police Collaborations	North East Transformation Innovation and Collaboration	2017-2017	£3,000
Restorative Approaches in Serious and Organised Crime	N8 Policing Research Partnership Knowledge Exchange	2016-2017

Teaching interests

Xavier's approach to teaching focuses on interaction and enquiry-based learning and is shaped by his own experiences of and preferences of academic and non-academic research and teaching.

He seeks to encourage students to engage with materials in critical ways to challenge popular (mis)understandings of criminological issues and enable students to form their own thoughts on key questions in contemporary criminology and social policy.

Xavier’s approach to teaching and learning also seeks to develop key employability skills of students to serve them beyond their undergraduate studies whether in academic or non-academic pursuits. With that in mind, he delivers teaching in a manner which develops team-work, presentational skills, critical analytical processes and innovative approaches to research.

Teaching activities

Xavier is the Programme Leader for BA Sociology with Criminology. Since its launch in 2017, this degree programme has grown rapidly and Xavier has been at the heart of this development. He is happy to answer any questions from prospective students about this degree programme.

Xavier currently convenes the following modules:

SCS1007: Introducing Criminology
SCS2021: Crime, Justice and Social Policy
SCS3038: Organised Crime and Illicit Enterprise
SCS3001: Dissertation in Sociology/Criminology/Social Policy/Digital Media and Society

Professional activities and memberships

Member of Editorial Board, Trends in Organized Crime.
Member of the N8 Policing Research Partnership.
Member of the Sheffield Universities Policing Research Group.
Academic representative of the South Yorkshire Organised Crime Partnership Board.
Member of the British Society of Criminology.
Member of the European Society of Criminology.