Clare Griffiths

Biography

Dr Clare Griffiths joined the criminology programme as a Teaching Fellow in 2010 before being appointed as a permanent lecturer in 2011. Prior to this Clare completed her BSc (Joint Honours), MA and PhD in criminology at Keele.

Research and scholarship

Clare completed her PhD at Keele which explored the reception of Polish migrants in a local town. Using a mixed methods approach, Clare listened to the views and experiences of both new Polish migrants and more established residents to understand how social change through migration may impact on experiences and perceptions of the social order. Clare’s research demonstrated the complexities at play there and dispelled some of the myths surrounding immigration and its impacts on crime and (in)security in communities. It showed how conviviality and 'civilised relationships' between newcomers and the established residents can exist in these changing neighbourhoods through everyday mundane social interactions.

Other more recent research projects and publications have included using a narrative methodology to explore undergraduate student motivations to study criminology; and adopting a ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) framework to critically analyse the UK Government’s 2021 ‘New Plan for Immigration’. Clare is also currently part of a team of criminologists at Keele working with a local charity (Engage Communities, Stoke on Trent) to evaluate how the use of sports can act as a diversion away from crime amongst young people.

Other areas of research interest include fear and insecurities around crime; the criminalisation and securitisation of migration; 'othering' and minoritized communities; community social control; 'social cohesion'; and police-community relations. Clare is interested, and has experience, in a range of methodologies including questionnaire design and quantitative data analysis; qualitative interviews and focus groups; narrative methods; and the 'WPR' approach in analysing policy texts.

Teaching

Clare has experience teaching on a range of modules at undergraduate level including,

• Understanding Crime
• Research Methods in Criminology
• Living with "Aliens": Immigration, Crime and Social Control
• Building Safer Communities
• Policing and Security

Clare also teaches at a postgraduate level on the MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Clare has experience supervising undergraduate and MA dissertations. She was part of the supervisory team for a successfully completed PhD project on ‘preventing mobile phone use while driving: Appreciating the equivocal nature of identity, safety and legality in an uncertain world’. Clare is currently involved in supervising PhD projects exploring changing perceptions and experiences of migration since Covid-19, and the narrative identities of those living with a previous criminal conviction.