Profile image of Professor Hannah Smithson

Professor Hannah Smithson Professor of Criminology and Youth Justice

Professor of Criminology and Youth Justice

My profile

Biography

I have worked within the field of criminology for over 20 years and I specialise in the area of youth justice. I am the Director of the world-leading Manchester Centre for Youth Studies. I am the co-convenor of the award-winning Greater Manchester Youth Justice Partnership - a partnership between Man Met and each of the 10 Greater Manchester youth justice services. The partnership has led to the creation of a transformative new framework: Participatory Youth Practice (PYP). PYP is the first framework to be co-created with justice-involved children based on their lived experiences. PYP has had an impact on youth justice practice, on national and international youth justice strategies, and, most importantly, on justice-involved children themselves. I work collaboratively with a variety of local, national and international communities and stakeholders, including professionals, activists and third sector organisations. My research has been instrumental in shaping agendas in research and policy across the interconnected areas of: youth justice, serious youth violence and child criminal exploitation. I have written extensively on the problematic reductionism of SYV to involvement in gangs. My most recent publications explore the benefits and challenges of participatory practice with justice-involved children.

Interests and expertise

University Roles

Director of the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies

Member, Dept of Sociology’s leadership team

Member, Dept of Sociology research leadership team

Member, Deputy VC’s academic advisory group

Lead academic, Societal Impact Theme for the Road to 2030

Chair, Professoriate Search Committee for Education and Youth Studies.

Editorial Board Membership

Editorial Board Member, Journal of Youth Studies

Advisory Board Membership

2022 - present: Trustee Kinetic Youth 

2022 – present: Probation Chief Inspector’s Expert Advisory Group on Probation and Youth justice

2022 – present: Member of advisory group for special task force of PRU/AP Greater Manchester

2020 - present: Chair of the Serious Youth Violence Academic network group. Youth Justice Board

2019 - 2022: Chair of the Alliance for Youth Justice

Research Council Panel Member

ESRC ADR UK Panel Member - Family Justice

Get in touch

0161 247 3442
GM 14 Geoffrey Manton Building
Arranged on request

Impact

The need for impact, public engagement and partnership working lies at the very heart of my research. Throughout my career, I have consistently addressed the impact agenda and led on innovative knowledge transfer projects designed not just to enhance the impact of my own research but also that of others. My research has been instrumental in shaping agendas in research and policy nationally.

I am the co-convenor of the award-winning Greater Manchester Youth Justice Partnership - a partnership between Man Met and each of the 10 Greater Manchester youth justice services. The partnership has led to the creation of a transformative new framework: Participatory Youth Practice (PYP). PYP is the first framework to be co-created with justice-involved children based on their lived experiences. PYP has had an impact on youth justice practice, on national and international youth justice strategies, and, most importantly, on justice-involved children themselves.

Awards and Prizes

2021 - Award for International Excellence from The International Journal of Sport and Society  for article Jump, D & Smithson, H (2020)Dropping your Guard: The Use of Boxing as a Means of Forming Desistance Narratives Amongst Young People in the Criminal Justice System. The International Journal of Sport and Society.

2020 – Finalist KTP ‘Best of the Best Awards’ for societal impact. Innovate UK

2019 – Times Higher Award for KTP Project of the Year

2018 – Finalist GMYJUP ‘Organisation of the Year’ Criminal Justice Alliance Awards.

Selected Invited/Keynote Speaker

  • BSA How to Craft an impact case study Nov (2022)
  • Learning lessons from research with young people about participation. Childrens Services Conference (Nov, 2022) 
  • Exploring the Impact of Covid on the Youth Justice System. Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, AGM October, 2021). 
  • ‘Serious youth violence and its relationship with adverse childhood experiences’. Youth Justice Board Live webinar. Online 6th July 2021.
  • ‘Serious youth violence and its relationship with adverse childhood experiences’. Youth Justice Board Live webinar. Online 18th May 2021.
  • ‘Making Youth Justice: Local penal cultures and differential outcomes’ – lessons and prospects for policy and practice. Howard League Live Webinar 30th March 2021
  • ‘Serious Youth Violence: Empowering Positivity through Participation’. Paper presented at a Youth Justice Board Live event. Online 10th November 2020. July 2018 Public Policy Exchange: The Future for Youth Custody symposium    
  • May 2018 National Association for Youth Justice (NAYJ) AGM (Participatory Youth Practice)
  • April 2018 National Autistic Society Annual Conference (SEND needs of young people in the youth justice system)
  • Jan 2018 MoJ Secure Schools Conference (Participatory Youth Practice)
  • July 2017 Standing committee for Youth Justice (SCYJ) AGM (Participatory Youth Practice)
  • June 2017 Youth Justice Board lunch time seminar (Participatory Youth Practice)
  • April 2017 Social Policy Research Centre seminar series, UNSW, Sydney (SEND needs of young people in the youth justice system)

Giving a voice to justice-involved children

Revolutionising youth justice practice by treating children involved in the criminal justice system as the experts in their own lives.

Read more

Projects

I have a sustained track-record of attracting external grant funding. 

Selected Research Projects

  • 2022 -2023: HMIP Exploring the effectiveness of OOCD in the youth justice system (£40,000)  (Co-Investigator)
  • 2020 –2022: UKRI ESRC Covid Response Grant ‘The Youth Justice System’s Response to the COVID Crisis: Implications and Impacts’ (£301,344) (Principal Investigator)
  • 2020 Youth Justice Board – ‘Serious Youth Violence and experiences of Trauma’. £100,000 (Co-Investigator)
  • 2019–2022 Ongoing delivery of the Youth Endowment Fund – ‘Inspiring Futures Rugby’ feasibility evaluation (£106,068). (Named Researcher)
  • 2019-2022 Ongoing delivery of the Youth Endowment Fund – ‘Borough of Lambeth Divert’ feasibility evaluation (£94,642). (Named Researcher)
  • 2018-2021 Ongoing delivery of Young Manchester funded ‘Evaluation of the Young Manchester #iwill fund’ (£115,000). (Principal-Investigator)
  • 2018-2020 Young Manchester (Charity) ‘Training young people to evaluate youth services’ (£115,000).
  • 2018-2020 Comic Relief/Sport Relief Funding – ‘Kicking Crime into Touch: rugby provision as a means of supporting desistance amongst young people in the justice system.’  (£100,000 Principal Investigator).
  • 2016–2017 Department for Education: ‘Improving Service Provision for Young People with Special Educational Needs in the Youth Justice System’. (£200,000).  (Co-Investigator)
  • 2015-2017 AHRC/ESRC ‘Youth Justice Knowledge Transfer Partnership Knowledge Transfer Partnership’ (£117,000)., Academic Lead). 
  • 2015 ESRC Festival  ‘Young Voices: using performance poetry to explore societal issues’ (£800).
  • 2014 Youth Justice Board: ‘Process Evaluation of Re-settlement Consortia in High Custody Areas’ (£72,000, Principal Investigator). 
  • 2012 Greater Manchester Police Safer Schools Partnership: Developing a problem profile of gangs and serious youth violence: (£10,000, Principal Investigator).
  • 2010 Oldham Council Safer and Stronger Partnership: Violent Gangs (£24,250, Principal Investigator)

Teaching

Teaching

I contribute to the following undergraduate and postgraduate units:

UG Level 4 – Understanding Crime and Deviance

UG Level 5 – Creative Research Methods

UG Level 6 – Social Science Futures

PGT

I contribute to the Applied Criminology Degree

Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

Children’s rights

Co-creation and participatory methods with young people

Young people’s experiences of custody   

Research outputs

Selected Journal Articles

  • Smithson, H. and Jones, A. (2021) Co‐creating youth justice practice with young people: Tackling power dynamics and enabling transformative action. Children & Society, Vol 35 (3) pp.348-362.
  • Jump, D. and Smithson, H. (2020) ‘Dropping your Guard’: the use of boxing to create desistance narratives amongst young people in the criminal justice system. International Journal of Sport and Society. 11 (2). pp. 56-69.
  • Smithson, H., Jones, A. and Gray, P. (2020) ‘They really need to start listening to you’. Co-creating youth justice practice with young people. Youth Justice: An International Journal.
  • Fraser, A., Ralphs, R. and Smithson, H. (2018) European youth gang policy in comparative context. Children and Society, 32(2), pp. 156-165.
  • Gray, P., Smithson, H., McHugh, R. and Smyth, G. (2018) ‘”There’s not going to be a single solution”: The role of resettlement consortia in improving the resettlement outcomes of young people leaving custody’. Youth Justice, 18 (1), pp. 67-81. 
  • Shazhadi, A., Smithson, H., McHugh, R. & Arun, S. (2017) ‘Society does treat me differently and that is a shame’: understandings and feelings of Britishness amongst visibly observant young Muslims, Journal of Youth Studies, 21, (5), pp. 607-619.
  • Ralphs, R. and Smithson, H. (2015) ‘European Responses to Gangs’ in the Handbook of Gangs, Decker, S. and Pyrooz, D. pp. 538-558.
  • H. Smithson, R. Ralphs (2016). Youth in the UK: 99 problems but the gang ain ’ t one?. Safer Communities. 15(1), pp.11-23.
  • H. Smithson, R. Ralphs, P. Williams (2013). Used and abused the problematic usage of gang terminology in the united kingdom and its implications for ethnic minority youth. British Journal of Criminology. 53(1), pp.113-128.
  • V. Heap, H. Smithson (2012). “We’ve got to be tough, we’ve got to be robust, we’ve got to score a clear line between right and wrong right through the heart of this country”: Can and should the post-riot populist rhetoric be translated into reality? Safer Communities. 11(1), pp.54-61.
  • H. Smithson, A. Wilcox, L. Monchuk, K. Christmann, K. Wong (2011). The prevalence of youth racially motivated offending: What do we really know? Probation Journal. 58(3), pp.233-249.
  • H. Smithson, A. Wilcox, L. Monchuk (2010). Current Responses to Youth Racially Motivated Offending. Youth Justice. 10(2), pp.157-173.

Books

  • Gray, Jump and Smithson (In press, March 2023). Trauma and its relationship with Serious Youth Violence. Bristol University Press

Book Chapters

  • Smithson, Lang and Gray (in press, Dec 2022) ‘From Rhetoric to Reality: the challenges of participatory practice in the youth justice system in Establishing Child Centred Practice Sam Frankel (Ed) Emerald Publishing.  
  • Crowther, J; Jump; D; Smithson, H (2022) ‘Kicking Crime into Touch’: Rugby Union as a Context for Positive Youth Development in Power Played A Critical Criminology of Sport. Derek Silva and Liam Kennedy (Eds) UBC Press.
  • Ralphs, R. and Smithson, H. (2015) ‘European Responses to Gangs’ in the Handbook of Gangs, Decker, S. and Pyrooz, D. pp. 538-558.

Selected Research Reports

  • Smithson, Jump and Nisbet (April 2022) Research briefing: The Youth Justice System’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic: The Impact in a Youth Offending Institute
  • Jump, Smithson and Nisbet (April 2022) Research briefing: The Youth Justice System’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic: The Impact in a Secure Children’s Home
  • Larner, Smithson and Nisbet (March 2022) Research briefing: The Youth Justice System’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Introduction to the Youth Courts
  • Larner, Smithson and Nisbet (March 2022) Research briefing: The Youth Justice System’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Court Adaptations
  • Smithson, Gray, Jump, Larner, Nisbet (March 2022) Research briefing: The Youth Justice System’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Adaptations and challenges to service delivery: A national picture
  • Smithson, Gray, Jump, Larner, Nisbet (February 2022) Research briefing: The Youth Justice System’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Partnership Working
  • Smithson, Gray, Jump, Larner, Nisbet (January 2022) Research briefing: The Youth Justice System’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Children’s welfare needs and vulnerabilities.
  • Smithson, Gray, Jump, Larner, Nisbet (June 2021) Research briefing: The Youth Justice System’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Adaptations to practice.
  • Smithson, H. and Jump, D. (2021) Final Report to Comic Relief Kicking Crime into Touch.
  • Gray, P., Smithson, H. and Jump, D. (2021) ‘Serious Youth Violence and its Relationship with Adverse Childhood Experiences’. Report for Manchester City Council.