Lesley McAra is Chair of Penology at the University of Edinburgh She is a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

and was appointed a

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the New Year's Honours List 2018, for services to

Criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

Career

McAra grew up in Hull as an expat Scot, and returned to Edinburgh to study at University. McAra's areas of academic research include the sociology of punishment, the sociology of law and deviance, youth crime, juvenile justice, gender justice and comparative criminal justice. She worked first at the

Scottish Office The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the e ...

doing research evaluating social work criminal justice services. She joined the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

as lecturer in criminology in 1995 and has been Dean of the School of Law, a member of the Centre for Law an
Society
and the Global Justic
Academy
and Director of the Edinburgh Future
Institute
McAra is an associate at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR). From 2019 to 2020, she served as President of the European Society of Criminology. She is co-director (with Professor

Susan McVie Susan is a feminine given name, from Persian "Susan" (lily flower), from Egyptian '' sšn'' and Coptic ''shoshen'' meaning "lotus flower", from Hebrew ''Shoshana'' meaning "lily" (in modern Hebrew this also means "rose" and a flower in general), ...

) of the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, a research programme funded by the

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

tracking the lives of young people in Scotland. It is a major longitudinal study of a single cohort of around 4,000 people who started secondary school in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in the autumn of 1998 The research highlighted how policing impacts on young people and that the structures of the

criminal justice system Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

in Scotland punish the poor, preventing them from escaping hardship. The research project has continued to track changes over time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McAra, Lesley British legal scholars Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Members of the Order of the British Empire Women legal scholars British women academics Living people Academics of the University of Edinburgh Year of birth missing (living people)