Lecturer in Criminology

Since 1999, I have been working with children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection especially street children in Bihar and Jharkhand, India. I have worked as the Member of Juvenile Justice Board, Patna and closely worked with the different stakeholders in the Youth Justice System. My PhD thesis was on the experiences, perspectives and participation of children in conflict with law under Juvenile Justice System in India. I did my study in an Observation Home (Secure Home for Young offenders) based on qualitative methods, mainly ethnography, with young people under 18 years and stakeholders consisting of juvenile justice board members, judiciary, welfare department, voluntary organizations and Police from Patna, Bihar, India.

I have more than 10 years of teaching in Higher Education in the UK. I have worked with a spectrum of professionals from the voluntary sector, academia and government agencies, which has helped in building a network internationally and especially in South Asia, which I try to incorporate in my teaching to bring a global perspective for our students. In past, I have done many projects in partnership with different development organisation like Save the Children, Bedfordshire & Luton Community Foundation etc.

Other References

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Qualifications

• PhD Applied Social Science – Lancaster University
• Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
• MSc Criminology – University of Edinburgh
• MA Sociology – Pondicherry University
• BA (Hons) – Jawaharlal Nehru University

Teaching Expertise

As a faculty, I teach different units that explore crime, deviance, and crime control issues with a specific emphasis on the contemporary context and the impact of age, social class, gender, race and sexuality on offending and victimization. I taught varied subject across the undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the School of Social Studies.

Undergraduate Units:

• Violence in Modern Society
• Cybercrime
• Law, Society & Controversy
• Green Criminology and Ecological Justice
• Victims and Victimology
• Young People, Gangs and Group Violence
• Studies in Race and Ethnicity
• Youth Justice & Child Protection
• Introduction to Academic Skills
• Independent Project in Criminology

Postgraduate Units

• International Social Work and Social Development
• MA Dissertation in Childhood and Youth
• MA Dissertation in Criminology

Ph.D:

• PDCYPS programme (2017, 2018 & 2019)
• Summer school programme- Experiences of Field Research work

Research Interests

I am working on developing pre-research work on a study on the ‘Teenaged victims of love marriages in the custodial setting’ in India and victims of Honour crime/forced marriages in the UK. I am also trying to secure funding to continue my research with children in conflict with law in India, mainly in Bihar and neighbouring states like Jharkhand, Bengal and Orissa. Besides Youth Justice, my other research interest areas are mainly:

• Honour Killings and Forced Marriage
• Domestic Violence
• Children's right to Participation
• Young offenders in Secure spaces/ Prison
• Child Trafficking and bonded labour
• Sexual exploitation of children
• Cybercrime and Young people
• Research Methods -Qualitative

Projects

• The University of Bedfordshire in partnership with Save the Children to train Child Protection Officers in India (2016). This was an India-based pilot project of training District Child Protection Officers from Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal in core child-protection skills and competency.
• Research work for Bedford and Luton Community Foundation (2017). The project was funded by the Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation. The report ‘Vital Signs’ was intended to inform the development of effective community work in Luton and Bedford by providing a ‘health check’ on key local issues informed both by statistics and local knowledge and experience. Please read the full report for ‘the Vital Signs Project’ [PDF]

Publications

• Conference paper on ‘Experiences of Children in the Juvenile Justice System in India’ in conference organised by the British society of Criminology (9th to 11th July 2014).
• Conference paper on ‘Participation of Children in Juvenile Justice System in India’ presented in the Howard League of Penal Justice, for a conference in April 2014.
• Conference Paper ‘Multi-agency work and the best interest of the child: The role of key stakeholders in the juvenile justice system in India’ in conference ‘New horizons in safeguarding children’ organised by NSPCC, 23rd & 24th March 2012.

Contact Details

E: Jaya.Ghosh@beds.ac.uk

T: 01582-743060