Dr Phil Jones

About

I am a senior lecturer in social research and the chair of the college research ethics committee for the College of Business, Law, and Social Sciences.

Research interests

I specialise in quantitative social research methods and GIS. I am primarily interested in the spatial and geographical structures seen in all kinds of social phenomena, but especially in the domains of criminology and crime prevention.

My recent research focuses on long term trends and policy changes that affect criminal behaviour.

I am currently working on a crime prevention project with colleagues from Nottinghamshire Police.

I was a postdoctoral researcher on the Thatcherism and Crime project, led by Professor Steve Farrall and Dr Emily Gray, where I contributed geographical and longitudinal analysis.

My PhD was in the geography of health inequalities and health resilience. I used GIS, quantitative methods, and spatial microsimulation to evaluate the effects of policy changes.

Recent publications

Jones, P.M., Gray, E. and Farrall, S. (2025) ‘Economic Insecurity, Welfare Retrenchment and Heroin Use Between the 1970s and 2000’, in P. Starke, L.L. Elbek, and G. Wenzelburger (eds) Unequal Security: Welfare, Crime and Social Inequality. Oxford: Taylor & Francis, pp. 193–217. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003462132.
Farrall, S., Gray, E. and Jones, P.M. (2022) ‘Life-courses, social change and politics: Evidence for the role of politically motivated structural-level influences on individual criminal careers’, Criminology & Criminal Justice, p. 174889582211266. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958221126667.
Gray, E., Farrall, S. and Jones, P. M. (2022) 'The Long Arm Of Welfare Retrenchment: How New Right Socio-Economic Policies In The 1980s Affected Contact With The Criminal Justice System In Adulthood' in British Journal of Criminology. 62(5). DOI: 10.1093/bjc/azac035 [UDORA open access manuscript version]
Jones, P. M., Minton, J. and Andrew, B. (2022) 'Methods for disentangling period and cohort changes in mortality risk over the twentieth century: comparing graphical and modelling approaches' Quality & Quantity. DOI: 10.1007/s11135-022-01498-3
Spooner, E., Hughes, C. and Jones, P.M. (2022) Police research and evidence-based policing. St Albans: Critical Publishing (The professional policing curriculum in practice)
Jones PM, Gray E, Farrall S. 'The spatial and temporal development of British prisons from 1901 to the present: The role of de-industrialisation'. European Journal of Criminology. August 2022. doi:10.1177/14773708221115159

See my ORCID profile for my publications.

Qualifications

BA (Hons) in Sociology - University of York
MA in Social Research - University of York
PhD in Human Geography - University of Sheffield

Recent conferences

I've presented research nationally and internationally, including at the European Society of Criminology and the American Society of Criminology.

Experience in industry

I worked in the public and third sectors for a number of years prior to entering academia.

In the media

Guardian, April 2019 - 'Industrial Collapse of Thatcher Years led to crime rise, study finds'

Teaching responsibilities

I currently teach on the following undergraduate programmes:

L435: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Professional Policing
L450: Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship

I am the module leader for the following modules:

4CJ558: Research Methods and Academic Skills for Policing
5CJ578: Police Problem Solving Models and Theories
6CJ996: Dissertation

I also teach at Masters level.

I supervise PhD students. I am particularly interested to hear from prospective students interested in quantitative or longitudinal methods in criminology or social policy.