Funding Success: £126.6k secured from The British Academy to explore the cultural politics of intoxication and sentencing in England and Wales
Dr Carly Lightowlers, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, has secured a prestigious Mid-Career Fellowship award from The British Academy to trace the development of sentencing policy with reference to intoxication in England and Wales and explore how current sentencing guidance is implemented in practice in magistrates’ courts. The £158.6k research project has been awarded funding of £126.6k from The British Academy.
The research project, titled ‘The Cultural Politics of Intoxication and Sentencing’, will run from January – December 2024. Through the research, Dr Lightowlers will provide novel insights into how the intoxication-offending relationship is understood and interpreted in sentencing policy and practice in England and Wales.
As a visible and symbolic stage in the criminal justice process, sentencing communicates moral and social judgements about defendants’ blameworthiness. How intoxication shapes culpability is not straightforward, and how it should influence sentencing is disputed. Through this programme of work, Dr Lightowlers will study the development and interpretation of sentencing policy with respect to intoxication, as well as gendered and classed value judgements, to provide ground-breaking insights into the processes through which constructions of the intoxication-crime ‘problem’ have been reinforced in policy responses.
Speaking of the fellowship award, Dr Carly Lightowlers said:
“I am delighted have been awarded this Mid-Career Fellowship. As one of the most common forms of aggravation, clarity around intoxication’s intended use is key to avoiding unwanted disparities and bias in sentencing outcomes. Through this project, I hope to stimulate debate about the way in which intoxication shapes sentencing outcomes.”
Professor Susan Pickard, Head of the Department of Sociology, Social Policy, and Criminology, said:
“This success in such a prestigious and competitive scheme indicates the high quality and originality of Carly’s research. To be granted this award is a testament to the supportive research culture we have built up in both the Department and the School in recent years, including the STAR programme and other mentoring and research development structures. I want to wish Carly congratulations as she embarks on this research which is set to provide novel insights into how we perceive intoxication at the point of sentencing”.
Find out more
- View Dr Carly Lightowlers' staff profile
- Visit the Department of Sociology, Social Policy, and Criminology webpages