Professor Elizabeth Yardley
Professor of Criminology
School of Social Sciences
- Email:
- elizabeth.yardley@bcu.ac.uk
- Phone:
- +44 (0)121 331 6616
Liz is passionate about making a difference to the lives of those affected by violence and challenging the myths and stereotypes around crime. Being an academic enables Liz to achieve these aims by doing research that sheds further light on the darkest elements of society and by training the criminal justice professionals of the future.
Liz's students never fail to inspire her - everyone at BCU is learning together in our commitment to tackle the harmful values, attitudes and beliefs that drive violence and criminality in the twenty-first century.
Areas of Expertise
- Homicide
- Domestic abuse and coercive control
- Technology in violence
- Media portrayals of violence
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons) Politics and Sociology – First Class
- PhD Management (Aston Business School)
Memberships
- American Society of Criminology
- British Society of Criminology
Teaching
- Gender and Crime (Level 6 Undergraduate Criminology)
- Contemporary Criminological Thought (MA Criminology)
- Criminology Dissertation
- Homicide and Multiple Homicide (Level 6 Undergraduate Criminology)
Research
- The Harms of Omnipresence. This interdisciplinary research explores the use of GPS trackers and spyware in cases of homicide, domestic abuse, coercive control and stalking. It will inform a campaign to change law and policy around the harmful use of monitoring technologies.
- Reporting Domestic Homicide. This project, in collaboration with the organization Level-Up, tracks the impact of new media guidelines on the reporting of fatal domestic abuse. This outcomes-focused research considers the extent to which reporting is becoming more accurate and sensitive and the challenges and opportunities in changing reporting practices.
- The True Crime Phenomenon: This multi-strand project considers a range of true crime outputs, from true crime magazines to podcasts, and identifies the ways in which the genre is helping or hindering contemporary understandings of crime.
Postgraduate Supervision
- Dan Rusu – Life after Life, Beyond the Gate: The construction and ceconstruction of identify amongst homicide offenders.
- Melindy Brown – An evaluation of the support in the community for released offenders in Staffordshire and the West Midlands, with a particular focus on alcohol-related offending.
- Sophie Rowe – Does befriending have an impact on reconviction?
- Shona Robinson-Edwards - Faith after Murder: Religion in the lives of offenders convicted of homicide offences.
- Liam Brolan - Making Sense of Holiday Homicide: A study of the nature, extent and law enforcement implications of Britons killed abroad.
Publications
- Yardley, E., Kennedy, M. and Brolan, L. (2018). Footballer, rich man, celebrity, consumer: Media blindness and the denial of domestic abuse in the Stephanie Ward and Danny Simpson case, Crime Media Culture, Online ahead of print DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659018797987
- Yardley, E.,Kelly, E. and Robinson-Edwards, S. (2018). Forever trapped in the imaginary of late capitalism? The serialized true crime podcast as a wake-up call in times of criminological slumber. Crime Media Culture, Online ahead of print DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659018799375
- Yardley, E. and Rusu, D. (2018). Edmund Clark’s Artistic Residency at HMP Grendon: Exploring the impact upon residents. Prison Service Journal, 239, pp. 50-57.
- Yardley, E. (2017). Social Media Homicide Confessions: Stories of killers and their victims. Bristol: Policy Press.
- Wilson, D., Yardley, E., & Pemberton, S. (2017). The ‘Dunblane massacre’ as a ‘photosensitive plate’. Crime, Media, Culture, 13(1), 55-68.
- Yardley, E., Wilson, D., & Kennedy, M. (2017). “TO ME ITS [SIC] REAL LIFE”: Secondary Victims of Homicide in Newer Media. Victims & Offenders, 12(3), 467-496. 2014-2017 2013-2014
- Yardley, E., Lynes, A. G. T., Wilson, D. & Kelly, E. (2016). What’s the deal with ‘websleuthing’? News media representations of amateur detectives in networked spaces, Crime Media Culture, Online ahead of print, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659016674045
- Brolan, L., Wilson, D., & Yardley, E. (2016). Hitmen and the Spaces of Contract Killing: The Doorstep Hitman, Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 13(3), 220-238.
- Yardley, E., & Wilson, D. (2016). In Search of the ‘Angels of Death’: Conceptualising the Contemporary Nurse Healthcare Serial Killer, Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 13(1), 39-55.
- Wilson, D., Yardley, E. & Lynes, A. (2015). Serial Killers and the Phenomenon of Serial Murder. Hook: Waterside Press.
- Yardley, E. & Wilson, D. (2015). Female Serial Killers in Social Context: Criminological institutionalism and the case of Mary Ann Cotton. Bristol: Policy Press.
- Yardley, E., & Wilson, D. (2015). Making Sense of ‘Facebook Murder'? Social Networking Sites and Contemporary Homicide. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 54(2), 109-134.
- Brookes, M., Wilson, D., Yardley, E., Rahman, M., & Rowe, S. (2015). Faceless: High-profile murders and public recognition. Crime, Media, Culture, 11(1), 61-76.
- Yardley, E., Wilson, D., Kemp, D., & Brookes, M. (2015). Narrative Beyond Prison Gates Contradiction, Complexity, and Reconciliation. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 59(2), 159-179.
- MacIntyre, D., Wilson, D., Yardley, E., & Brolan, L. (2014). The British hitman: 1974–2013, The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 53(4), 325-340.
- Yardley, E. (2014). Counterblast: Putting serious case reviews in their place–What we really need to understand about child homicide. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 53(3), 309-313.
- Yardley, E. (2014). The value of audit tools in children's services: Reflections upon a common assessment framework audit. British Journal of Social Work, 44(4), 937-954.
- Yardley, E., Wilson, D., & Lynes, A. (2014). A taxonomy of male British family annihilators, 1980–2012. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 53(2), 117-140
Media Work
Elizabeth Yardley is one of the University’s dedicated team of trained media champions, and can comment on a range of subjects including:
- Women & Crime
- Prisons
- Female Serial Killers
To arrange a media interview, please contact Birmingham City University Press Office on +44 (0)121 331 6738, 07967 271532,
email press@bcu.ac.uk or via Twitter @BCUPressOffice
Links and Social Media
Twitter: @ProfLizYardley