
Dr Samuel Kirwan
BA(Leeds), MSc(Bristol), PhD(Bristol)
Expertise
I am a criminologist looking at the relationship between money and criminal justice. While most of my research has been in the field of debt, I have recently turned to the study of gambling.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer
School for Policy Studies
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
Having completed doctoral work on Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and the intertwined policy fields of Community Safety and Crime Prevention in 2011, between 2013 and 2018 I carried out research with advice services looking at the provision of advice, and debt advice in particular, during the period of austerity. This led me to carry out research also with clients of debt advice services on their experiences of debt, 'priority debts' in particular, were experienced in punitive terms, but also how individuals would find ways of imagining better futures beyond the rhythms of priority debt repayment.
This interest in money and criminal justice has brought me to the study of gambling. I am currently carrying out two projects, looking respectively at crypto-trading in its relationship to gambling and the experiences of betting shop employees.
I bring these research interests into my specialist unit entitled Crime, Harm and Money, and am writing a book entitled The Debt Cycle; How Money and Criminal Justice are Intertwined.
This interest in money and criminal justice has brought me to the study of gambling. I am currently carrying out two projects, looking respectively at crypto-trading in its relationship to gambling and the experiences of betting shop employees.
I bring these research interests into my specialist unit entitled Crime, Harm and Money, and am writing a book entitled The Debt Cycle; How Money and Criminal Justice are Intertwined.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
A pilot study to assess the possibility of generating a quantitative analysis of the time evolution of gambling-related practices within cryptocurrency trading platforms
Principal Investigator
Description
Following long-standing concerns about the lack of regulation of crypto-trading platforms, the Treasury Committee tasked with looking at cryptocurrency trading in the UK recently announced their belief that these products…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/02/2023 to 31/03/2024
Ideas of legality and citizenship
Role
Researcher
Description
‘New Sites of Legal Consciousness: Ideas of Legality and Citizenship’ is a research project based at the University of Bristol in partnership with a small number of Citizens Advice Bureaux…Managing organisational unit
University of Bristol Law SchoolDates
01/04/2012 to 01/04/2016
Publications
Recent publications
01/01/2022Benefits Overpayments and the Criminalisation of Female Poverty
Oppressed by Debt
Between a knock at the door and a knock to your score
Journal of Cultural Economy
Financial Inclusion
Financial Inclusion
‘Choose your moments’: Discipline and speculation in the indebted everyday
The Sociology of Debt
On ‘those who shout the loudest’
Geoforum
Teaching
I am the Programme Director for the Criminology Programmes at the University of Bristol. I convene and teach the Y2 core unit Key Thinkers in Criminology, and the Y2 specialist unit Crime, Harm and Money.