Professor Butler’s interests include criminological psychology, imprisonment, reducing reoffending, desistance, penal reform and social media related crimes.. Criminological psychology involves understanding why people engage in crime, how society reacts to and manages criminal behaviour, as well as 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 practices, prison-based parenting programmes, the effects of caregiver imprisonment, the experiences of vulnerable people in the criminal justice system and penal reform in the UK, Ireland, Uganda and Colombia.