Dr Mohammed Rahman

• Serious and Organised Crime
• Violence
• Gangs
• Ethnographic research

• Ph.D Philosophy (2014 – 2017)
• MEd Academic Practice in Higher Education
• MA Criminology
• PgCert Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
• PgCert Research Methods
• BSc (Hons) Forensic Computing

• European Consortium for Political Research: Standing Group on Organised Crime
• Expert member of the Global Initiative Network
• Centre for Security and Extremism (Birmingham City University)

BA (Hons) Criminology, BSc (Hons) Psychology with Criminology & BA (Hons) Sociology and Criminology

• Crime in the City
• Crime, Media and Culture
• Issues in Criminal Investigation: Forensic Science
• Transnational Organised and Corporate Crime
• Dissertation

MA Criminology

• Dissertation

Mohammed’s current research projects can be explored across three key strands, which are carried out simultaneously.

The first focuses on serious and organised crime. Research within this strand is published in a series of international journal articles, book chapters and in the book: Homicide and Organised Crime: Ethnographic narratives of serious violence in the criminal underworld. Here he explores the nature, extent the meaning of violence practice across multiple organised crime groups, ranging from those part of local street based criminal groups to those that have committed contract killings internationally. Within this strand, he is currently preparing to pursue a multi-site ethnography on British South Asian organised crime, with a concentrated focus on two British-Bangladeshi inner-city communities.

The second concerns evolving existing qualitative methodologies in social research that are widely used for criminological scholarship. This passion of his stems from fieldwork during his Ph.D, where he used unconventional and novel methods to collect ethnographic and case study research data, mainly through the use of digital technology. Currently in this strand he is preparing a manuscript that discusses the use of a car as a space for work and its digital technology when conducting ‘street level’ fieldwork. He is also co-authoring a book on the ethics of undertaking criminological research.

The third concerns exploring some of the social inequalities that are prevalent in his home city – Birmingham, UK. This strand neatly ties with the Birmingham 2029 initiative, which is a research mapping exercise that is intended to capture and archive the city and some of its societal challenges. It also aligns with his role as the lead researcher for the community, engagement and resolution research cluster, which is situated within the Centre for Security and Extremism. Within this strand, Mohammed’s main goal is to involve undergraduate and postgraduate students in research related activities, so that they can benefit from real world research experiences as well as connect with local key stakeholders from various sectors. Recently, he successfully completed a funded project with a postgraduate student that explored the vulnerabilities that are associated with rough sleepers.

Mohammed currently supervises the following PhD students:

• Craig Pinkney: Internet Beef: Making sense of Social Media, Gangs and Youth Violence Within West Midlands, England. (Director of Studies)
• Rio Waldock: The forgotten prisoners: The impacts off IPP sentencing on people in custody and upon release through recall provisions. (Supervisor)

He welcomes PhD proposals that focus on serious violence, criminal exploitation and organised crime.

Books

• Rahman, M. & Deuchar, R. (In production for 2023) Ethics in Criminological Research. London: Routledge.
• Kewley, S., Pemberton, S., & Rahman, M. (2021) Preventing Sexual Harm: Towards a Positive Criminology. London: Routledge.
• Rahman, M. (2019) Homicide and Organised Crime: Ethnographic Narratives of Violence in the Criminal Underworld. London: Palgrave.

Journal articles

• Rahman, M. (In production) A Criminological Voyage: Using the car as a place of work and technology for street level ethnographic research.
• Rahman, M. & Abdulkader, M. (2022) Living Rough: The vulnerabilities of rough sleepers in Birmingham, UK, Abuse: An International Journal.
• Kotzé, J., Antonopoulos, G.A. & Rahman, M. (2022) The Processes, Logics and Economies of Violence in Organised Crime, Trends in Organised Crime.
• Rahman, M. & Abdulkader, M. (2021) ‘Some of them look at you like as if you’re a piece of dirt on their shoe’: The Stigma of Being a Rough Sleeper. Academia Letters, Article 2175.
• Rahman, M., McLean, R., Deuchar, R., & Densley, J. (2020) Who are the enforcers? The motives and methods of muscle for hire in West Scotland and the West Midlands. Trends in Organised Crime. Springer.
• Rahman, M. & Lynes, A. (2018) Ride to Die: Understanding Masculine Honour and Collective Identity in the Motorcycle Underworld. Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice.
• Rahman, M. (2016) Understanding Organised Crime in Birmingham: A Case Study of the 2003 New Year Shootings. British Society of Criminology.
• Awan, I. & Rahman, M. (2016) Portrayal of Muslims Following the Murders of Lee Rigby in Woolwich and Mohammed Saleem in Birmingham: A Content Analysis of UK Newspapers, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Routledge.
• Brookes, M., Wilson, D., Yardley, E., Rahman, M., & Rowe, S. (2015) Faceless: High-profile murders and public recognition, Crime Media Culture, Sage.
• Wilson, D. & Rahman, M. (2015) Becoming a Hitman, Howard Journal for Criminal Justice, Wiley Publications.

Book chapters

• Rahman, M. (2019) Outlaw Biker Clubs: A case study exploration of collective violence. In: C, Ireland, M, Lewis, J, Ireland & A. Lopez. International Handbook on Collective Violence. London: Routledge.
• Rahman, M. (2019) The price of life: The average cost of a contract killing in the UK is £15,180 In: A. Lynes and J. Treadwell. 50 Facts of Criminology. Bristol: Policy Press.
• Rahman, M. (2016) The Media Impact of Online Islamophobia: An Analysis of the Woolwich Murder, In: I. Awan, (eds) Islamophobia in Cyberspace: Hate Crimes Go Viral, London: Routledge.

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