Dr Mark Brown

School of Law

Senior Lecturer

Mark Brown
Profile picture of Mark Brown
Mark.Brown@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6716

Full contact details

Dr Mark Brown
School of Law
EF11
Bartolomé House
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND
Profile

I joined the School of Law in September 2014. Prior to that I spent four years developing a small law and justice consultancy focused on actors in the international sphere, based in Geneva, while also working as a Chamonix-based professional mountain guide.

My early career was spent in Australia where I was in the criminology program at the University of Melbourne until 2010. In 2011 I was a visiting professor at the Institute for Criminology and Criminal Law at the University of Lausanne. I retain a Senior Honorary Fellow position at Melbourne and have taught intensive masters modules on punishment and detention there and at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney.

I have published extensively in the area of prisons and penal policy with a focus upon both contemporary and historical penality. In 2013 Ashgate published Penal Culture and Hyperincarceration: The Revival of the Prison (co-authored with colleagues from the University of New South Wales), a modern history of the prison in Australia since about 1970. In 2014 my book Penal Power and Colonial Rule, a study of colonial uses of law as a strategy of governance in British India, was published by Routledge. More recently I have published on postcolonial penalities, southern criminology and decolonising approaches in criminology.

I have worked on the Indian subcontinent in several capacities since 1999 when I held a visiting appointment at University of Delhi Law School. My research has taken me to Bhutan, India and Pakistan and I have spent a number of winter seasons in Kashmir and Nepal. In recent years I have been visiting and working with colleagues at Jigme Singye Wangchuck (JSW) School of Law in Thimphu, Bhutan, some of which has been funded by the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund and the Leverhulme Foundation.

In my Geneva-based consultancy I was a senior advisor at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime and advised on criminal justice reform at DCAF. Currently, I advise the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on matters surrounding imprisonment and recidivism globally, as well as undertaking strategic evaluations of UNODC work both in Vienna and in the field, including in Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran, Kenya, and Pakistan.

I am currently working on a new book, tentatively titled Remaking Criminology. It develops my work on criminology and globalisation, postcolonialism and the southern criminological turn. My article on ‘Postcolonial Penalities’ in India won the best article of 2017 prize in the journal Theoretical Criminology. I welcome applications from potential PhD scholars in these areas of work.

Qualifications
  • PhD, Victoria University of Wellington
Research interests
  • Prisons and Penal Policy
  • Penal History and Theory
  • Colonial and Post-colonial Law and Justice
  • Global Criminology
  • Transnational Organised Crime
  • Fragile and Post-conflict States
  • Sustainable Development Goal 16 - Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies
  • Programme Evaluation in International Development

I invite expressions of interest from students interested in working within any of the areas of my research interest noted above.

Publications

Books

  • Brown M (2014) Penal Power and Colonial Rule. Abingdon: Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Cunneen C, Baldry E, Brown D, Schwartz M, Steel A & Brown M (2013) Penal culture and hyperincarceration: The revival of the prison. Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown M (2005) The New Punitiveness: Trends, Theories, Perspectives. Willan Pub. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown M & Pratt J (2000) Dangerous Offenders: Punishment and Social Order. London: Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (1992) Decision Making in District Prisons Boards. Wellington: New Zealand Department of Justice. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM, Sanisoto B & Lungu O (1992) Cognitie Sociala (Social Cognition). Iasi, RO: Eurocart. RIS download Bibtex download

Edited books

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Brown M (2023) Colonialism and penality, The Routledge International Handbook on Decolonizing Justice (pp. 380-390). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (2018) Southern Criminology in the Post-colony: More Than a ‘Derivative Discourse’? In Carrington K, Hogg R, Scott J & Sozzo M (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South (pp. 83-104). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown M (2013) Colonial history and theories of the present: Some reflections upon penal history and theory, Crime and Empire 1840-1940: Criminal Justice in Local and Global Context (pp. 76-91). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown M (2013) The iron cage of prison studies In Scott D (Ed.), Why Prison? (pp. 149-169). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown M (2013) Liberal exclusions and the new punitiveness In Pratt J, Morrison W, Hallsworth S, Brown M & Brown D (Ed.), The New Punitiveness: Trends, Theories, Perspectives (pp. 272-289). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown M (2012) When Prison is not Prison: Australian Courts’ Rejection of Material Experience and Effects as Elements of Punishment In Masson I (Ed.), Experiencing Prison. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown M (2011) Imprisonment and Detention In de Lint W & Marmo M (Ed.), Crime and Justice. Sydney: Thomson/Reuters. RIS download Bibtex download
  • White J (2011) Introduction, Outdoor Provision in the Early Years (pp. 1-11). SAGE Publications Ltd RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown M (2010) Theorising dangerousness, Handbook of Public Protection (pp. 40-59). RIS download Bibtex download
  • (2010) Corrections (pp. 454.1-454). Royal College of General Practitioners RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (2009) Crime, Governance and the Company Raj In Wagner K (Ed.), Stranglers and Bandits: A Historical Anthology of Thuggee Oxford: Oxford University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (2008) The Road Less Travelled: Arts-based Programs in Youth Correction In O'Brien A & Donelan K (Ed.), The Arts and Youth at Risk: Global and Local Challenges Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (2008) Risk, Punishment and Liberty In Cunneen C & Anthony T (Ed.), The Australasian Critical Criminology Reader Sydney: Federation Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (2008) True crime: W.H. Sleeman and the Thugs In Brittlebank K (Ed.), Significant Events and People of British India Melbourne: Monash University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Marsh J & Hallet E (2008) Desirable Literacies: Approaches to Language and Literacy in the Early Years SAGE Publications Ltd RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (2007) Prisons In Galligan B & Roberts W (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics Melbourne: Oxford University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (2005) Liberal Exclusions and the New Punitiveness In Pratt J, Brown D, Brown M, Hallsworth S & Morrison W (Ed.), The New Punitiveness: Current Trends, Theories, Perspectives Collompton Devon: Willan Publishing. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM, Eccelston L & Ward T (2003) The Assessment of Dangerous Behaviour In Fittskirk P & Shohov SP (Ed.), Focus on Behavioural Pychology Huntington, NY: Nova Science. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Ward T & Brown M (2003) The Risk-Need Model of Offender Rehabilitation: A Critical Analysis, Sexual Deviance: Issues and Controversies (pp. 338-353). SAGE Publications, Inc. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM, Eccelston L & Ward T (2002) The Assessment of Dangerous Behaviour In Shohoy P (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research Huntington, NY: Nova Science. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM (2000) Calculations of Risk in Contemporary Penal Practice In Brown M & Pratt J (Ed.), Dangerous Offenders: Punishment and Social Order London: Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM & Pratt J (2000) Introduction In Brown M & Pratt J (Ed.), Dangerous Offenders: Punishment and Social Order London: Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM & Young W (1999) On Punitiveness and Inclusiveness: Offenders and Victims in New Zealand Criminal Justice In Rounds D & Delbert L (Ed.), International Criminal Justice: Issues in Global Perspective USA: Allyn and Bacon. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM & Young W (1998) The Use of Imprisonment: Trends and Cross-national Comparisons In Melossi D (Ed.), The Sociology of Punishment: Socio-Structural Perspectives Brookfield, USA: Dartmouth. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM, James S & Sutton A (1997) Law Enforcement and the Prevention of Drug Related Harm, Crime Prevention in Australia: Issues in Policy and Research Sydney: The Federation Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM & Young W (1993) The Use of Imprisonment: Trends and Cross-national Comparisons In Tonry M (Ed.), Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research Chicago: University of Chicago Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown MM () ‘The birth of criminology in South Asia: c1765—1947’ In Shahidullah SM (Ed.), Crime, Criminal Justice, and the Evolving Science of Criminology in South Asia: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

Book reviews

Conference proceedings papers

Other

  • Brown MM (2011) Building a force for good: the mission to create a viable Afghan National Police 2011-118.1.. RIS download Bibtex download
Teaching interests

My teaching is underpinned by three key supports – a philosophy, a strategy and a style.

Philosophically, I believe that students learn best through engagement with their topic and the teaching materials that support it. Learning is enhanced if students can easily ‘find a way in’ to topics.

I believe that in criminology and law this is most effectively achieved by organising teaching around a series of narratives, or stories, that draw the student into a topic and help them to see the problem both in its wider context and its important detail.

Strategically, I think that teaching needs to balance foundational information about how legal and criminal justice processes operate with development of the conceptual tools for critique of those processes.

The modules I coordinate are thus structured around provision of both the ‘nuts and bolts’ knowledge that students need to take away as well as opportunities to learn and practice the techniques of analysis and critique. Assessment is designed so that students can demonstrate their grasp of both elements.

Finally, I aim for a teaching style that is open and, as far as possible within the large group lecture format, interactive.

My module websites provide students with the important points for each lecture – not lecture notes – and I speak to these in the lecture.

Students shouldn’t have their heads down taking notes in a lecture: you can’t listen properly when you’re doing that. And you certainly can’t engage in a dialogue.

I think effective teaching involves shifting lectures from being a content transfer exercise (from my lecture notes to the student’s lecture notes) to being an opportunity to listen and think and discuss.

Teaching activities

The modules I teach are:

Undergraduate

I contribute across a number of undergraduate modules

Postgraduate

  • Global Perspectives on Terrorism and Counterterrorism (convenor)
  • Crime and Globalisation (convenor)
  • Issues in Comparative Penology (convenor)
Professional activities and memberships

Member of the Centre for Criminological Research