Professor Iain Brennan

Professor Iain Brennan

Professor of Criminology

Faculty and Department

  • Faculty of Arts Cultures and Education
  • School of Criminology, Sociology and Policing

Qualifications

  • BSc (Cardiff Metropolitan University)
  • PhD / DPhil (Cardiff University)
  • MA (University College Cork)

Summary

Iain Brennan is a Professor of Criminology, a chartered research psychologist and the University of Hull Institutional Lead for Open Research.

Iain's research interests are in violence prevention including weapon-carrying, serious violence and domestic abuse. He is particularly interested in evaluating interventions in these areas and has led many evaluation studies incorporating randomised controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs and process evaluations.

He is an adviser on violence prevention to local and national governmental and non-governmental organisations including Home Office, Youth Endowment Fund, College of Policing, National Police Chiefs' Council and many police forces across the UK.

He has been a principal or co-investigator on more than 20 funded research projects worth over £7.3m from funders including ESRC, Home Office, ADR-UK, NPCC, Jacobs Foundation and the European Commission. He is currently principal investigator on several research projects including a £1.5m evaluation of focused deterrence interventions on behalf of Youth Endowment Fund.

He is the author of over 50 journal articles, reports, chapters and books, a member of the editorial board of British Journal of Criminology and an ADR-UK Ambassador.

BA Criminology

- Offending and Victimisation

Recent outputs

View more outputs

Journal Article

Measuring serious violence perpetration: comparison of police-recorded and self-reported data in a UK cohort

Cornish, R., Teyhan, A., Tilling, K., Macleod, J., & Brennan, I. (2025). Measuring serious violence perpetration: comparison of police-recorded and self-reported data in a UK cohort. International Journal of Population Data Science, 10(1), https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2391

The meaning and use of weapons in an English remand prison

Pieri, B., & Brennan, I. (online). The meaning and use of weapons in an English remand prison. Journal of Criminal Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-09-2024-0088

Focused deterrence: A protocol for a realist multisite randomised controlled trial for evaluating a violence prevention intervention in the UK

Simanovic, T., McFarlane, P., Brennan, I., Sutherland, A., & Graham, W. (2024). Focused deterrence: A protocol for a realist multisite randomised controlled trial for evaluating a violence prevention intervention in the UK. PLoS ONE, 19(3), Article e0301023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301023

Prevalence and patterns of domestic abuse victimisation in an English police workforce

Brennan, I., Couto, L., & O’Leary, N. (2023). Prevalence and patterns of domestic abuse victimisation in an English police workforce. Policing and Society, https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2023.2184817

Report

Problem solving violent crime: a guide for analysts

Sidebottom, A., Agar, I., Brennan, I., & Chainey, S. (2024). Problem solving violent crime: a guide for analysts. Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire: College of Policing

Research interests

Iain's research is on the application of psychological and criminological theory to the understanding and prevention of community violence.

He undertakes research work in:

- Weapon use

- Serious youth violence

- Domestic abuse

- Evaluation of violence prevention interventions

- Crime reporting and victim responses to crime

- Evidence-based policing and use of experiments in criminal justice

- Information sharing for violence prevention

- Diversion from custody

Lead investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

AREDAA feasibility study

Funder

Home Office

Grant

£109,491.00

Started

1 August 2021

Status

Ongoing

Project

Youth Endowment Fund’s place-based Agency Collaboration Fund: Another chance

Funder

Youth Endowment Fund

Grant

£1,053,100.00

Started

1 June 2022

Status

Ongoing

Project

The relationship between bullying and serious violence

Funder

Youth Endowment Fund

Grant

£18,488.00

Started

1 May 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Domestic Abuse Protection Order Evaluation

Funder

Ecorys UK Limited

Grant

£14,214.00

Started

17 April 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Focused Deterrence data analysis guidance

Funder

Youth Endowment Fund

Grant

£9,981.00

Started

1 September 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

The impact of childhood adversity on violent crime in adolescence and early adulthood

Funder

ESRC Economic & Social Research Council

Grant

£19,439.00

Started

1 January 2021

Status

Complete

Project

Evaluation of Violence Reduction Units

Funder

Home Office

Grant

£17,850.00

Started

1 September 2019

Status

Complete

Project

Police Initiated Diversion for Youth to Prevent Future Delinquent Behaviour: A Systematic Review

Funder

George Mason University

Grant

£4,600.00

Started

1 July 2016

Status

Complete

Project

HO/ADR UK Feasibility Study

Funder

ESRC Economic & Social Research Council

Grant

£1,823.00

Started

1 May 2020

Status

Complete

Project

Evaluation of the Violence Reduction Units 3

Funder

Ecorys UK Limited

Grant

£17,579.00

Started

1 September 2021

Status

Complete

Project

Triangulating the relationship between school exclusion and serious violence

Funder

Youth Endowment Fund

Grant

£17,136.00

Started

1 August 2023

Status

Complete

Project

Violence Reduction Units – Impact and processes evaluation No4

Funder

Ecorys UK Limited

Grant

£24,300.00

Started

1 November 2022

Status

Complete

Project

Qualitative systematic review of focused deterrence

Funder

Youth Endowment Fund

Grant

£35,850.00

Started

1 January 2024

Status

Complete

Project

HIKE: International Conference on Focussed Deterrence 2024

Funder

AHRC Arts & Humanities Research Council

Grant

£7,735.00

Started

1 February 2024

Status

Complete

Co-investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

Humberside VRU Evaluation

Funder

Humberside Police

Grant

£202,891.00

Started

1 January 2023

Status

Ongoing

Project

Heroin and Crack Action Evaluation

Funder

Humberside Police

Grant

£12,000.00

Started

1 November 2020

Status

Complete

Postgraduate supervision

Professor Brennan is happy to hear from potential students interested in undertaking postgraduate research in any of his areas of research interest.

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