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Loretta Trickett

Dr Loretta Trickett

Professor

Nottingham Law School

Staff Group(s)
Nottingham Civic Exchange Nottingham Law School staff

Role

Loretta is a Professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Nottingham Law School. Whilst at NTU, she has previously been module leader on Criminal Law and Mooting (LLB), International Criminal Law (LLM) and Human Rights and Criminal Justice (LLM). She continues to act as module leader on Criminology and Criminal Justice (LLB) and Victim’s Rights and Criminal Justice (LLM) both subjects that she has taught for many years. Loretta acts as academic leader of the Postgraduate Research Community Forum and supervises PhD, LLM and LLB students on a wide range of criminal justice dissertations. She has been awarded the VC teaching award and is a HEA fellow. In 2021, she was highly commended for the quality of her personal tutor support to international students. Loretta has used her extensive research expertise with public organisations to considerably enrich the under-graduate and post-graduate curriculum of NLS by successfully bridging the gap between theory, policy, and practice. Loretta has previously been awarded the VC Outstanding Researcher award and the ‘Outstanding Contribution’ Award at NTU.

Loretta is an active empirical researcher whose research regularly informs public policy and debate. Her externally ranked 4* REF Impact Case Study 2021 ‘Improving criminal justice responses to hate crime’ documented her wide-ranging public policy impact in the UK and beyond. In 2021 she was awarded THE Times Higher Award for ‘outstanding contribution to a community’ for her collaborative research with Professor Louise Mullany, University of Nottingham, on the topic of women’s safety. This prestigious award ceremony is widely considered as the ‘Oscars’ of higher education.

Your work at NTU

Loretta has expanded the legal and criminal justice curricula of NLS by taking a socio-legal and interdisciplinary approach to law and criminal justice connecting theory, law and policy with practice in the real-world. She has used her public facing practice-based research to inform her academic leadership of students and staff.  Loretta’s research on equality and diversity has championed the voices of marginalised groups raising awareness of social inequality and social exclusion opening up the field of criminal justice to critical scrutiny. Loretta contributes to the strategic operation of NLS through her teaching, research, line management and REF mentoring activities.

Career overview

Loretta obtained an LLB in Law with Honours from Coventry University followed by an MA in Criminology from The University of Leicester. Her PhD on men’s fear of crime and experiences of victimisation was from The University of Birmingham.  Her main research interests included experiences of gendered violence and harassment, hate crime victimisation and more broadly, social inequality. Before joining NTU Loretta taught Criminal Law and Human Rights Law at Coventry University and the Open University. She has acted as external examiner in law and criminology at the University of Hull and London Metropolitan University (both 4-year terms). She has also acted as external examiner for PhD candidates on the topic of hate crime.

Research areas

Loretta’s main research areas include gendered harassment and violence, hate crime, policing and social exclusion. Her research falls under NTU’s ‘Safety and Security of Citizens and Society’ research theme. She has a sustained track record of generating research income including small and medium sized grants from public institutions, and larger grants from research councils. Loretta has excelled in practice-based research outputs, all consistently aimed at improving public service provision. These include research reports, policing tools, national and international book chapters, journal articles, conference presentations and the design and delivery of workshops and presentations in the UK and abroad.  Her research resulted in a successful externally ranked 4* REF impact case study in 2021.

Improving responses criminal justice responses to hate crime

Loretta’s 2021 REF case study included wide-ranging impact including her 2014 evaluation of CPS disability hate crime cases across the East Midlands identifying significant gaps in knowledge, resulting in poor responses and incorrect labelling of disability hate crime which greatly influenced the efficacy of prosecutions.  This empirical evidence provided localised insights into a national picture of victim dissatisfaction with criminal justice responses particularly those concerning victims with learning disabilities.

Loretta’s empirical report, The Policing of Hate Crime in Nottinghamshire, found deficiencies in training and the knowledge of police officers. Her recommendations were incorporated into the production of interactive national police computer training in England and Wales incorporating victim testimonies, case studies and practitioner experiences.  Her recommendations were further utilised in the development of interactive hate crime training for criminal justice professionals (police, call handlers, lawyers and judges) across Europe in the Facing Facts programme, leading to professional accreditation.  Locally in Nottinghamshire, Loretta’s research informed the development of reflective practitioner workshops for criminal justice professionals including ‘unconscious bias,’ as well as the facilitation of ‘difficult conversations’ with communities, in the ‘Citizens at the Heart’ project based on EU funding.

Loretta’s policing report also resulted in the development of hate crime risk assessment models.  Her 2018 model for Nottinghamshire Police was ‘commended’ as an example of ‘good practice’ in the HMICFRS 2018 hate crime evaluation ‘Understanding the difference’. Her 2020 risk assessment model developed with Dyfed and Powys Police was evaluated and commended by the College of Policing.  Key learning from the design and implementation of these risk models was disseminated through NPCC and EMPAC workshops, aimed at improving police investigations, police/victim interactions, risk management and safeguarding and victim satisfaction at a national level.

Loretta has given evidence at Westminster on hate crime more generally and intersectional hate crime.

Research on Women’s Safety

Following Loretta’s work with Citizens UK on the ‘No Place for Hate’ survey in Nottinghamshire in 2014, Nottinghamshire Police introduced the Misogyny Hate Crime Policy in 2016. Loretta’s (2018) research evaluation of the policy with Professor Louise Mullany of Nottingham University, recommended that ‘sex/gender’ should be included as an additional legal category of hate crime, and recorded as such by all police forces on a national level. This ‘trailblazing’ use of misogyny as a lens into public harassment and wider violence against women and girls revolutionised how such behaviour was conceptualised and understood across the globe. Barely on the global radar 5 years ago, the topic of misogyny has permeated all discussions of violence against women and girls and significantly enhanced awareness of the scale, nature and impact of gendered public harassment and violence.  This research has featured in numerous Parliamentary debates including the Domestic Violence Bill and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Punishment Bill and has resulted in the passing of legislation (Voyeurism Act 2019). It directly influenced the Law Commission’s 2021 proposals to include a new offence of inciting hatred of sex/gender and an offence of Public Harassment. Loretta’s more recent work in this area includes an emphasis on male allyship.  For details on this and further projects see External Activity below.

External activity

In addition to external activity mentioned above, underpinning her 2021 REF impact case study, Loretta has further extended the accessibility and impact of her research projects by building educational resources to be used in schools, colleges, and universities as part of the EDI agenda to overcome barriers to social inclusion. Her ‘Changing Minds’ comic with James Walker which emphasised the role of men as allies in ending public harassment of women and girls, has been used in NTU induction materials, University of Nottingham training for staff and students and also informed Home Office strategy through the implementation of civic plans in cities across the UK. Other research projects generating educational tools have been based on her research with refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants on community cohesion (New and Emerging Communities) and use of arts-based programmes to tackle the social exclusion of older people (The Bigger Picture); both with James Walker (NTU).  Loretta has also contributed to the development of training to keep people with learning disabilities safe online and in the night-time economy. She has undertaken research on victim satisfaction for Nottinghamshire Police and completed evaluations of the Living Well Service for Age UK.

Current externally funded projects include an evaluation of victim services for Derbyshire PCC, an Arts and Humanities research project on ‘The Future of Law and Social Justice: listening and hearing from the front-line’ and a review of SWaN Women’s Safety Strategy for Leicester Council with John Coxhead of EMPAC.

Current internally funded projects include an exhibition on Black History with Clive Foster and Robina Din (NTU) and an exhibition on women’s safety and men’s allyship with James Walker (NTU). Loretta is currently looking for funding to explore the issue of student safety on campus and men’s mental health.

Sponsors and collaborators

Academic collaborators: Dr Paul Hamilton, Dr Irene Zempi, James Walker (all NTU), Dr Rebecca Stack (formerly NTU), Dr Tara Young (University of Kent), Professor Louise Mullany (University of Nottingham).

External funders and collaborators

Hate Crime Steering Group, Nottingham

Nottinghamshire Police

Nottingham Council

Police and Crime Commissioner, Nottingham

Women’s Centre, Nottingham

Mencap

NPCC

College of Policing

EMPAC

Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner

British Arts Council

Age UK

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Publications

Pending Publications

Trickett, L., & Bryan, T. (2022) The Importance of Getting it Right: Bridging Context and Content in Hate Crime Training in Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice.

Publications

Bryan, T. and Trickett, L., 2021. “It’s not Really Hate Crime”–Reframing Hate Crime as not Police Business”–Police Narratives of Resistance and Denial. Journal of Hate Studies, 17(1).

Mullany, L, Trickett, L, & Howard, V. (2021) Informing legal change: the language of misogyny hate crime, gender and enhancing protection through criminal law in Zempi, I. and Smith, J. eds., 2021. Misogyny as Hate Crime. Routledge.

Mullany, L. and Trickett, L., 2020. The Language of ‘Misogyny Hate Crime’: Politics, Policy and Policing. In Professional Communication (pp. 249-272). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Young, T. & Trickett, L. (2017) Girls, Agency, Sexual identity and victimisation ‘on road’ in M. Worley (ed) Youth Culture and Social Change: Making a difference by making a noise, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

The Policing of Hate Crime in Nottinghamshire (2016) Public Research Report, IRep, Nottingham Trent University.

Trickett, L., 2016. Birds and sluts: Views on young women from boys in the gang. International Review of Victimology, 22(1), pp.25-44.

Trickett, L (2014). Reflections on gendered masculine identities in targeted violence against ethnic minorities, in The International Handbook of Hate Crime, Nathan Hall et al, (eds) Abingdon: Routledge.

Hamilton, P., and Trickett, L (2014). 'Disability Violence, Harassment and Hostility: An Offender's Perspective', in The International Handbook of Hate Crime, Nathan Hall et al, (eds) Abingdon: Routledge.

Trickett, L. (2011), The Fears of the Fearless, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, Vol: 39 (4) 280 – 302.

Trickett, L. (2009), Don't Look Now – Masculinities, Altruistic Fear and the Spectre of Self: When, Why and How Men Fear for Others. Crimes and Misdemeanours, 3/1.

Trickett, L. (2009), Bullying Boys: An Examination of Hegemonic Masculinity in the Playground, The Internet Journal of Criminology, December, p1-1

See all of Loretta Trickett's publications...

Press expertise

  • Crime
  • Education
  • Health & Wellbeing
  • Law