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Find a PhD Supervisor

Dr Michelle Butler

School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work
Lanyon

Dr Michelle Butler

School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work

Dr Butler’s interests include criminological psychology, imprisonment, reducing reoffending and desistance, penal reform and social media crimes. Criminological psychology involves understanding why people engage in crime, how society reacts to and manages criminal behaviour and how individuals begin to leave behind a criminal career. She has been involved in a number of research projects examining prison violence, the needs of young people on remand, fear of crime, prison disciplinary and parenting programmes in prison, effects of parental imprisonment in Uganda, the experiences of vulnerable people in the criminal justice system and penal reform in Northern Ireland.

Contact info

  • View Academic Profile
  • michelle.butler@qub.ac.uk
  • +44 (0) 28 9097 3956

Research Interests

Open to PhD applications in: 

  • Imprisonment
  • Criminological Psychology
  • Penal Reform
  • Reducing Reoffending
  • Desistance
  • Social Media Crimes

Make a PhD enquiry


Public outreach & key achievements

Winner Queen’s University Belfast Supervisory Excellence Award 2018

Nominated for Queen’s University Belfast Supervisory Excellence Award 2016

Nominated for Queen’s University Belfast Supervisory Excellence Award 2015


Research students

PhD area Behind Closed Doors: A Study of Cell-sharing and Coping in Prison. 
Name Aimee Muirhead
Years of study 2015-2019 
Country UK 
   
PhD area Keira Flanagan 
Name The Potential Effects of Educational and Vocational Programmes on the Desistance Process in Imprisoned Young People 
Years of study 2015-2021 (Part-time) 
Country Ireland  
   
PhD area Effects of Prison Work in the Irish Prison Service
Name Sinead Meade   
Years of study 2015-2021 (Part-time) 
Country Ireland  
   
PhD area Doing Desistance in Divided Neighbourhoods: The Role of Conflict Affected Neighbourhoods
Name Shane Bell
Years of study 2015-2019  
Country UK
   
PhD area A cross-national study of WhatsApp users in Oman: Motivations for self-disclosure and risk of blackmail    
Name Abdullah Al Habsi 
Years of study 20
   
PhD area The Detection and Prevention of Inappropriate and Criminal Behaviour in Social Media
Name Mark Williams
Years of study 2016-2020 
Country UK 

Alumni: Where are they now

PhD area Police Response and Understanding of Incidents of Domestic Abuse Involvement Children and Young People. 
Name Annemarie Millar
Years of study 2014-2018  
Country UK 
Current Position Queen’s University Belfast, Research Fellow.  
   
PhD area The Impact of State Intervention on the Work of Community-Based Restorative Justice Projects in Northern Ireland 
Name Lauren Hogg 
Years of study 2013-2017 
Country UK 
Current Position Queen’s University Belfast, Teaching Assistant.  
   
PhD area Initiations and Transitions into Injecting Drug Use and Heroin Use. 
Name Julie Harris PhD
Years of study 2009-2017 
Country UK 
Current Position University of Ulster, Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice. 

Discover More

  • Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
  • School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work
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Postgraduate Research
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