Research interests
Stephanie is a historical criminologist with interests in the history of crime, punishment, and policing. Her research lies at the intersection of the histories of violence, gender, and community in England and Wales. Stephanie's work tackles the question of how prosecution is shaped by social ideas about violence, gender, ethnicity, and class. She is interested in changes and continuities in the law, punishment, and the wider criminal justice system.
Stephanie's period of expertise is 1350-1900, however she is more than happy to supervise dissertations on twentieth-century or contemporary criminology projects that overlap with her wider research interests. Her wider research interests include legal and social conceptions of violence, the socio-economic backgrounds of criminals and victims, the construction (and deconstruction) of criminality, media narratives on crime, public perceptions on crime and criminal justice, and critical criminology.
Her forthcoming monograph Murder and Mercy: Homicide and capital punishment in nineteenth-century Wales argues that not everyone had an equal chance at mercy. It examines the attitudes towards murder, murderers, and victims and assess how these views were modified by concepts of gender, race and nationality, and the growing concerns surrounding a criminal class.