- 200 years
- Study
- International
- Business and employers
- Research
- About us
https://webcdn.mmu.ac.uk/profiles/img/profile-images/SMALL--crop-145x145-583c0fa44b1a2.jpg
I’m interested in disorderly and anti-social behaviour and how it’s managed under the rule of law - which should be clear, universal and even-handed. Communities sometimes need to control individuals’ behaviour, but imposing arbitrary and unlawlike controls is ethically unacceptable and may be counter-productive.
My research is currently organised around three themes: labelling disorder (how unacceptable forms of disorder are constructed by the law and the criminal justice system); controlling disorder (how undesirable behaviour is managed under and beneath the law); and exiting disorder (how individuals involved in disorderly lifestyles succeed in desisting and 'move on').
Criminology is a ‘borderland’ subject in many ways - it exists on the boundary between Sociology and Law, but also on the boundary between academic study and public policy. Lots of people want to hear from Criminologists - the government, the Police, the media - and none of them want us to give what they think are the wrong answers. The challenge that drives my work is to make the tension between these different demands a creative one, enriching pure research by bringing in the perspectives of policy-makers - and vice versa.
Criminology is still a young subject: nobody has all the answers, and there are lots of questions still to ask. So ask them! How much crime is there, really (and how do we know)? What’s the best way to prevent crime? What is ‘crime’ anyway? Question everything.
Everyone needs a teacher, sometimes - somebody who can set things out clearly and straightforwardly, giving you a road map through uncharted territory. But what students really need is to strike out as independent learners and plot their own course. The key task of the lecturer is to help students get to that point - sometimes offering support, often posing challenges, always being open and honest.
I studied English at Cambridge and worked in IT and the media for several years before gaining an MA and PhD from the University of Salford.
I came to MMU in 2010 after working at the University of Manchester for five years, first as a researcher in "e-social science" and then as a lecturer in research methods and criminology.
I am unit leader on Victims and Restorative Justice and joint unit leader with Robert Grimm on Extremism and Political Radicalism. I also teach a postgraduate module on Restorative Justice.
Italian, French, Spanish
Unit leader: Victims and Restorative Justice (level 6)
Joint unit leader: Extremism and Political Radicalism (level 6)
Restorative Justice (module within Critiquing Crime and Justice unit)
External advisor for MA in Global Security, University of Central Lancashire (2013)
My doctoral research, published as a book in 2009, used qualitative and quantitative data to analyse the growth and decline of radical social movements in 1970s Italy. I am currently working on a series of papers on anti-social behaviour, counter-terrorism and the regulation of disorder.
My principal research interests are
P. Edwards (2015). Where, how, who? Some questions for restorative justice. Safer Communities. 14(3), pp.139-146.
P. Edwards (2015). Counter-Radicalisation. C. Baker-Beall, C. Heath-Kelly, L. Jarvis. In: Counter-Radicalisation: Critical Perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge, pp.54-70.
P. Edwards (2009). More Work! Less Pay!'. Manchester University Press.
P. Edwards (2009). More work! Less pay: rebellion and repression in Italy, 1972–77. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
P. Edwards (2021). Restorative justice without a victim: Rise and the roads not taken. British Journal of Community Justice. 17(1), pp.23-41.
P. Edwards (2015). Where, how, who? Some questions for restorative justice. Safer Communities. 14(3), pp.139-146.
P. Edwards (2013). Guerrilla USA: The George Jackson Brigade and the Anticapitalist Underground of the 1970s. Social Movement Studies. 12(3), pp.359-360.
P. Edwards (2013). Anti-social behaviour, harassment and the context-dependent victim. Nottingham Law Journal. 22, pp.119-132.
P. Edwards (2013). Alessandro Orsini: Anatomy of the Red Brigades: The Religious Mind-Set of Modern Terrorists. Trans. Sarah Nodes. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011. Pp. vi, 317.). The Review of Politics. 75(1), pp.168-171.
P. Edwards (2012). How the News was Made: The Anti-Social Behaviour Day Count, Newsmaking Criminology and the Construction of Anti-Social Behaviour. Critical Criminology. pp.1-15.
P. Edwards (2011). Leaving Terrorism Behind: Individual and Collective Disengagement. PUNISHMENT & SOCIETY-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PENOLOGY. 13(4), pp.492-494.
P. Edwards (2011). 'Rejecting all adventurism': the Italian Communist Party and the movements of 1972-9. Twentieth Century Communism. 2011(3), pp.14-37.
PJ. Edwards (2010). Tore Bjørgo and John Horgan (eds.) (2009), Leaving terrorism behind: Individual and collective disengagement. Punishment and Society. 13(4), pp.492-494.
P. Edwards (2009). ‘Veniamo da Lontano e Andiamo Lontano’: the Italian Left and the problem of transition. Bulletin of Italian Politics. 1(2), pp.211-232.
PJ. Edwards (2008). Tom Slee, No one makes you shop at Wal-Mart. Political Studies Review. 6(2), pp.218-219.
P. Edwards (2008). No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart: The Surprising Deceptions of Individual Choice. POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW. 6(2), pp.218-219.
PJ. Edwards (2007). Antonio Negri, Books for burning. Political Studies Review. 5(1), pp.129-130.
P. Edwards (2005). The Berlusconi anomaly: Populism and patrimony in Italy's long transition. South European Society and Politics. 10(2), pp.225-243.
L. Banwell, P. Dixon, S. Andretta, FC. Johnson, M. Crann, et al. S. Hornby, P. Stephen, A. Goulding, S. Morgan. (1998). Book reviews. Educ. Inf.. 16(3), pp.357-374.
P. Edwards (2015). Counter-Radicalisation. C. Baker-Beall, C. Heath-Kelly, L. Jarvis. In: Counter-Radicalisation: Critical Perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge, pp.54-70.
PJ. Edwards (2009). Remoralizing Britain?. PM. Scott, CR. Baker, EL. Graham. In: Remoralizing Britain?. Continuum Intl Pub Group,
P. Edwards Terrible beauty seeks geometric potency: arms and the law in the anni di piombo. 12/3/2011.
P. Edwards (2010). How to be an ex-terrorist: what gang members can tell us. 24/11/2010.
P. Edwards 'Just plain comrades': Italian armed struggle groups and the mass movement, 1972-80. 30/3/2010.
P. Edwards (2009). Ending violent careers: stories from Milan and Moss Side. 2/4/2009.
R. Procter, M. Batty, M. Birkin, R. Crouchley, WH. Dutton, et al. P. Edwards, M. Fraser, P. Halfpenny, Y. Lin, T. Rodden. (2006). The national centre for e-Social science. In: Proceedings of the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 2006. Nottingham, ENGLAND, 18/9/2006. pp.542-549.
P. Edwards, K. Wong, S. Morris, A. Kumar Reveal Theatre Prevent Local Delivery Impact Evaluation Scoping Report. Manchester Metropolitan University and Ipsos Mori, Home Office.
Book reviews
2014 “Does populism exist?” (review essay), Social Movement Studies, epub ahead of print, DOI: 10.1080/14742837.2014.927326
2013 Alessandro Orsini, Anatomy of the Red Brigades, The Review of Politics 75(1):168-71
2012 Daniel Burton-Rose, Guerrilla USA: The George Jackson Brigade and the anticapitalist underground of the 1970s, Social Movement Studies 12(3): 359-60
2010 Tore Bjørgo and John Horgan (eds.) (2009), Leaving terrorism behind: Individual and collective disengagement, Punishment and Society 13(4):492-4
2008 Jean-Louis Briquet, Mafia, justice et politique en Italie, Modern Italy 13(3):370-2
2008 Tom Slee, No one makes you shop at Wal-Mart, Political Studies Review 6(2):218-9
2007 Antonio Negri, Books for burning, Political Studies Review 5(1):129-30