Welcome to the CCJVS

Over the past twenty years, the Centre for Crime, Justice & Victim Studies (CCJVS) has firmly established itself as a national centre of excellence in criminal justice research. 

Founded in 1997 as the Centre for Criminal Justice (CCJ), the centre was rebranded as the Centre for Crime, Justice and Victim Studies (CCJVS) in 2015 in recognition of its significant research strengths in the area of victims’ rights. The centre is directed by Dr Susan Leahy, senior lecturer in law at UL.

At present, the centre is comprised of fulltime staff members in the School of Law, fulltime researchers and PhD candidates all researching cutting-edge topics that have practical significance for the challenges posed in the modern criminal justice system. The key research areas that CCJVS members focus on are Criminal Law, Evidence and Procedure; Victim Studies; Youth Justice; Hate Crime; European Criminal Justice; Regulatory Crime; and Offending and Desistance.

Centre members are actively engaged in high-quality, funded national and international research projects across these key areas. 

They are also heavily involved in the development of law and policy, with members regularly making contributions to law reform debates as well as providing training and development opportunities for criminal justice stakeholders. For example, the training programmes for An Garda Síochána is accredited by the School of Law, with CCJVS members sitting on the quality assurance board for Garda training programmes.

The CCJVS runs regular seminars and conferences that are attended by and involve contributions from key national and international criminal justice stakeholders and academics. We also host a blog, Criminal Justice in Ireland, that provides regular contributions from centre members and visiting academics.

For further details on the work of the centre and/or queries about getting involved in our work, please contact Dr Susan Leahy at susan.leahy@ul.ie or ccjvs@ul.ie

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