Professor Paul Knepper
Professor of Criminology (PhD)
Director of International Affairs for the Faculty of Social Sciences
Academic Profile
Paul Knepper completed the PhD in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University. He contributes to the history of crime, theoretical criminology, and the philosophy of social science. He joined the Department of Sociological Studies in 2004.
Research
Current research focuses on the coalescence of crime as an international issue during the 1920s and 1930s. The research looks at the role of the League of Nations in shaping of crime issues, such as human trafficking and drug trafficking, into international issues, and the perception of threat from worldwide problems from the economic depression and “international Jewry”.
| Funded Research Projects | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Sponsor | Details |
| 2011 | Nuffield Foundation | Recovering ‘Lost Knowledge’ of Global Crime The project will reconstruct the original aims, methodological choices and decisions of the 1927 League of Nations study of human trafficking. |
| 2008 | British Academy/Association of Commonwealth Universities | The Legacy of the British Empire on the Administration of Justice in Malta Awarded for archival research in Malta and England concerning the impact of imperial policy and British social attitudes on Malta’s police and prisons. The Legacy of the British Empire on the Administration of Justice in Malta. This research explores the impact of imperial policy on police and prison in Malta during their formative decades of the nineteenth century. Conducted in collaboration with Jacqueline Azzopardi and Sandra Scicluna, University of Malta. |
Teaching
SCS 1011 Classical Social Theory. This module introduces foundational theories in sociology.
SCS 335 Social Policy and Criminology. This module explores criminological views of social policy, particularly, the impact of policies concerning health, housing, education, unemployment, and youth/family on crime reduction. It also reviews concepts of social justice and `criminalisation of social policy´.
See our Undergraduate Degree pages.
I teach at postgraduate level on the MA in Global and International Social Policy and the MA in Social Research.
Postgraduate Supervision
Professor Knepper is currently supervising PhD research involving:
- transitions and identities of girls in secure custody
- the knowledge base of European security policy
- colonial policing in Malta
- government responses to drug trafficking in Serbia
- immigrant culture and delinquency amongst girls in the UK
- resilience, urban governance and global anxiety
- images of women and violence in war time
To find out more about our PhD programmes, go to:
Studying for a PhD in Sociology
Publications since 2005
Books
Paul Knepper and Per Ystehede. eds The Cesare Lombroso Handbook. Routledge, forthcoming
Paul Knepper. International Crime in the Twentieth Century: The League of Nations Era, 1919-1939. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
Shlomo G. Shoham, Paul Knepper and Martin Kett. eds The International Handbook of Criminology. Boca Raton: Taylor and Francis, 2010
Shlomo G. Shoham, Knepper, P., and Martin Kett. eds The International Handbook of Victimology. Boca Raton: Taylor and Francis, 2010
Paul Knepper The Invention of International Crime: A Global Issue in the Making, 1881-1914. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009
Paul Knepper, Jonathan Doak and Joanna Shapland, eds, Urban Crime Prevention, Surveillance and Restorative Justice: Effects of Social Technologies. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis, 2009
Paul Knepper, Criminology and Social Policy. London: Sage Publications, 2007
Shlomo G. Shoham and Paul Knepper, eds, Israel Studies in Criminology, vol 9: Terrorism and the International Community. Toronto: de Sitter Publications, 2005
Articles (refereed)
Paul Knepper 'Measuring the Threat of Global Crime: Insight from the League of Nations' Research into Traffic in Women', Criminology (in press)
Paul Knepper 'An International Crime Decline: Lessons for Social Welfare Crime Policy?' Social Policy and Administration (in press)
Paul Knepper 'Lombroso's Jewish Identity and its Implications for Criminology' Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 44(3), 2011, 355-69.
Paul Knepper and Jacqueline Azzopardi Cauchi 'International Crime in the Interwar Period: A View from the Edge' Crime, Law and Social Change, 56(4), 2011, 407-19.
Paul Knepper ‘Anarchistische Anschläge und die Entstehung der Kriminologie als internationale Disziplin’ Kriminologisches Journal 42(4), 2010, 246-62. (translated by Marie-Luise Sauter)
Paul Knepper and Sandra Scicluna ‘Historical Criminology and the Imprisonment of Women in Nineteenth Century Malta’ Theoretical Criminology, 14(4), 2010, 407-424.
Paul Knepper, ‘The British Empire and Jews in Nineteenth Century Malta’ Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 9(1), 2010, 67-87.
Paul Knepper, ‘A Few Detectives Would Be Very Useful: Crime, Morality and Policing in Valletta, 1880-1914’ Journal of Social History, 2009, 43(2), 131-52.
Paul Knepper, ‘How Situational Crime Prevention Contributes to Social Welfare’ Liverpool Law Review, 2009, 30(1), 57-75.
Paul Knepper, ‘The “White Slave Trade” and the Music Hall Affair in 1930s Malta’ Journal of Contemporary History 2009, 44(2): 205-20.
Jaqueline Azzopardi Cauchi and Paul Knepper, ‘The Empire, the Police and the Emergence of Fingerprint Technology in Malta’ Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2009, 9(1), 49-68.
Trevor Calafato and Paul Knepper, ‘Criminology and Criminal Justice in Malta’ European Journal of Criminology, 2009, 6(1), 89-108.
Paul Knepper, ‘La Scuola Lombrosiana and the Beginning of Criminology in Malta’ Journal of Maltese History, 2008, 1(1), 3-18.
Paul Knepper, ‘The Other Visible Hand: Jews and Anarchists in London before the First World War’, Jewish History, 2008, 22(3), 295-315
Sandra Scicluna and Paul Knepper, ‘Prisoners of the Sun: The British Empire and Imprisonment in Malta in the Early Nineteenth Century’ British Journal of Criminology 2008, 48(4): 502-21.
Paul Knepper, 'Rethinking the Racialisation of Crime: The Significance of African American "Firsts"' Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2008, 31(3), 503-23
Paul Knepper, '"Jewish Trafficking" and London Jews in the Age of Migration' Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 2007, 6(3):239-56.
Paul Knepper, 'Situational Logic in Social Science Inquiry: From Economics to Criminology' Review of Austrian Economics, 2007, 20(1): 25-41.
Paul Knepper, 'British Jews and the Racialisation of Crime in the Age of Empire' British Journal of Criminology, 2007, 47(1): 61-79.
Paul Knepper, ‘Crime Prevention in a Multinational Open Society’ International Criminal Justice Review, 2005, 15(1): 58-74.
Paul Knepper, ‘Polanyi, “Jewish Problems”, and Zionism’ Tradition and Discovery, 2005, 32(1): 6-19.
Paul Knepper, ‘Michael Polanyi and Jewish Identity’ Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2005, 35(3):263-293.
Chapters in books
Paul Knepper, ‘Jews, Crime and Criminology’ in Hemdat L. Israeli, ed, Gvurot HaYetzirah (Fortitudes of Creativity). Tel Aviv: Alpha Press (in press)
Paul Knepper and Trevor Calafato, ‘Crime and Punishment in Malta’ in Marcelo Aebi and Miriam Pina, eds, Crime and Punishment Around the World Greenwich, CT: Praeger, 2010.
Paul Knepper, Jonathan Doak and Joanna Shapland, ‘The Study of Social Technology in Criminology’, in Paul Knepper, Jonathan Doak and Joanna Shapland, eds, Urban Crime Prevention, Surveillance and Restorative Justice: Effects of Social Technologies. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis, 2009.
Paul Knepper and Clive Norris, ‘Fingerprint and Photograph: The Early History of Surveillance Technologies in the Manufacture of Suspect Identities’, in Paul Knepper, Jonathan Doak and Joanna Shapland, eds, Urban Crime Prevention, Surveillance and Restorative Justice: Effects of Social Technologies. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis, 2009.
Paul Knepper, ‘History of Correctional Officers,’ Pp. 411-14 in Mary Bosworth, ed., Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facilities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage USA, 2005.
A full list of publications can be downloaded by clicking the link on the right of this page.