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https://webcdn.mmu.ac.uk/profiles/img/profile-images/avatars_0000s_0004_Graham-Smyth-resize-100x100-528f77de33d00.jpg
My research interests include interventions with offenders designed to change their behaviour; probation; youth justice; crime prevention. I’ve looked at intensive probation schemes, resettlement schemes for released prisoners, restorative justice schemes, delivery of services to young offenders and a scheme offering ‘life coaching’ to prisoners.
I’d describe myself as laid back; I like to see the funny side of things; and I’m, er, tall.
I do a bit of performance poetry, I play and watch football (Burnley FC… that’s the watching bit, I might add). I also like cycling and spending time with my family though they’re grown up now; the kids, that is – my wife always was.
I also chip in to things around the Ugandan Charity my wife has set up (Transport for Sick Ugandan Children – TUSC; http://www.tusc.btck.co.uk/ ).
I worked for a long time in criminal justice – probation, youth justice, crime prevention. I enjoy bringing this into my teaching so that I can link up academic ideas and research with what happens in the real world. I try to give a feel for how we deal with offenders in the real world: what it’s like, what’s important, what can make a difference.
Know what you’re letting yourself in for. Have a good idea of the kind of things we look at in Criminology, so you know if it’s really what you want to do. Give yourself a taste of a bit of Criminology in action: volunteer with a youth offending service, probation, victim support, the Police, Partners of Prisoners. Doing something like that will definitely bring your studies to life. Oh and read a paper or at least watch the news. Things never stand still in criminal justice, so it’s worth having an idea of what’s going on.
I want to make learning enjoyable, interesting and fun. It’s my aim to get students thinking things through for themselves.
I always try to teach in a way that involves students rather than just have me spouting from the front all the time. This includes exercises and activities as well as discussion. I want to know my students and have them know me. I want them to feel able to contribute.
3 words to sum up my approach to teaching would be approachable, interactive and engaging, or at least I try to be.
Bachelor of Law (LLB)
MA Economic & Social Studies
Certificate of Qualification in Social Work
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice
Undergraduate courses My teaching at MMU includes a unit on working with offenders and I am jointly responsible for the third year core criminology unit 'the Criminological Imagination', on which I teach a mini-module on criminal law. I am also unit leader for applied dissertations.
I previously taught on the academic component of the professional qualification for probation officers, which MMU were involved with until July 2016.
Programme leader for the MA in Applied Criminology and responsible for the 'Practice' and 'Placement' options on that programme.
On the supervision team for a youth justice related PhD.
Graham Smyth LLB, MA, has been a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at MMU’s Sociology department since January 2006. He joined MMU following a career in which he worked for 26 years in criminal as an officer and a manager within the Probation Service, as a Safer Cities coordinator / community safety manager and as head of a youth offending service. This time was marked by a number of innovative and successful projects, including establishment in 1997 of Burnley’s ‘Dordrecht Initiative’ with persistent offenders in Burnley which was one of the forerunners for the current national PPO programme.
His research and evaluation work has included evaluations of probation, youth offending and restorative justice initiatives and European funded research on the role of housing in resettling offenders and on gender in youth offending.
Research Interests
Graham’s main research interests are:
Research Activities
2012 Evaluation of Rochdale Targeted Youth Support project
2010 NW Regional Offender Accommodation Pathway group: ‘The long and winding road’: pathways to settled accommodation for offenders in the North West - research director
2010 Ministry of Justice: evaluation of Intensive Alternatives to Custody pilot
2010 NACRO / Government Invest to Save Budget: Evaluation of Restorative Peer Panels in Preston, Lancashire
2009 Hefce Urban Regeneration Making a difference fund: Exploring journeys into and out of offending behaviour in young women
2008 Cheshire Youth Offending Service: First Time Entrants to the Youth Justice System in Cheshire: Who Are They and How Can They Be Kept Out?
2008 Hefce Urban Regeneration Making a difference fund: School Transport – the Community Safety Dimension
2006 Cheshire Youth Offending Service: Review of delivery of Referral Orders
GM. Smyth (2010). What have you done right?’ Targets & Youth Crime Prevention. British Journal of Community Justice. 18(1), pp.31-39.
L. Heywood, G. Smyth (2009). Peer panels: an innovative approach to restorative justice?. Safer Communities. 8(3), pp.39-47.
C. Fox, G. Smyth, P. Williams (2009). Findings from an interim evaluation of Peer Panels – a form of restorative justice. Cahiers Politiestudies. 2(11), pp.159-172.
GM. Smyth (2015). A Baseline Evaluation of Restorative Justice Work within Manchester Youth Offending Service. , Manchester Youth Offending Service.
GM. Smyth (2014). Evaluation of Coaching Inside And Out. n/a, Coaching Inside And Out.
GM. Smyth, C. Smith, A. Watson, C. Fox, M. Ellison (2013). Evaluation of Choose Change at HMP Manchester.
GM. Smyth, C. Fox, M. Ellison (2012). EVALUATION OF ROCHDALE CONNECTIONS TRUST TARGETED YOUTH SUPPORT (TYS) INTERVENTION.
GM. Smyth, L. Crookes (2010). The Long and Winding Road: routes to settled accommodation for offenders in the North West.
GM. Smyth, S. Hacking (2009). EXPLORING JOURNEYS INTO AND OUT OF OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR IN YOUNG WOMEN.
GM. Smyth (2008). First Time Entrants to the Youth Justice System in Cheshire: Who Are They and How Can They Be Kept Out? A review.
Member Higher Education Academy (and I've still got my social work qualification)