Christopher joined the School in April 2017. Prior to this, he worked in the Department of Law and Criminology at Sheffield Hallam University. He obtained a PhD from the School of Law at the University of Manchester in 2016 on the impact of the privatisation of the probation service on the desistance processes of young adult offenders. Prior to this, Christopher had completed two masters degrees and an undergraduate degree in Criminology. He is also part of the European Society Working Group on Community Sanctions.
Christopher's main research interests focus on the ways in which people cease their involvement in criminal activity and the transition from “offender” to “ex-offender”. He is also interested in the ways criminal justice (particularly probation) and voluntary sector organisations are able to facilitate this transition. Christopher's doctoral research explored the impact of the privatisation of the probation service on the ways in which young adult offenders were able to continue to develop a desisting identity. The study has drawn attention to the “unintended consequences” of social policy interventions and the ways in which such interventions are experienced by those on the threshold of change.
- Foundations in Social Science
- Introducing Criminology
- Operational Policing Issues
- The Criminal Justice System in England and Wales
- Rehabilitation and Recovery
- Kay, C. and Monaghan, M. (2018) “Rethinking Recovery and Desistance Processes: Developing a Social Identity Model of Transition”, Addiction, Research and Theory
- Rise in crimes by offenders on probation is an indictment of privatisation (2017)
- Kay, C. (2016) “Good Cop, Bad Cop, Both?: Exploring the impact of risk based allocation on the desistance narratives of intensive probationers” Probation Journal Vol. 63(2) pp.162-8