Dr Marisa Silvestri

Dr Marisa Silvestri's main research interests lie at the intersections of gender, crime, justice, policing and organisational cultures. Underpinned by an interest in the ways in which ‘care’ and ‘control’ are experienced, negotiated and enacted within the punitive context of the criminal justice system, she is interested in the gendered nature of organisational identities within criminal justice. More specifically, her research focuses on the gendered dimensions of policing and police leadership. 

Dr Silvestri recently published the second, revised edition of Gender and Crime (with Chris Crowther-Dowey) and is currently working on two books: Police Leadership: Changing Landscapes (edited with Pauline Ramshaw and Mark Simpson) and Police Leadership: Critical Perspectives (with Claire Davis, Policy Press). 

Dr Silvestri’s main current research interest focuses on unpacking and better understanding the various critical diversities within policing, together with driving forward more complex readings of police organisational culture(s). This focus has led her to develop work on a number of related projects including: 

• Gender, career and leadership in policing 
  
• Policing organisational culture(s) 
  
• The impact of direct entry on the police career and diversity within policing 
  
• The interactive effects of gender and race amongst police officers 
  
• Impacts of religious and occupational identities on police practice and well-being 
  
• Policing Transphobic Hate Crime and the role of specialist officers. 
  

With a strong emphasis on capturing and developing the relationship between theoretical and policy dimensions, her research is underpinned by a commitment to knowledge exchange, transfer and impact. With the clear objective to improve both ‘internal’ relations within policing and ‘external’ ones with communities served, her research has had impact in relation to improving criminal justice policy and practice. 

Dr Silvestri has been adviser to a number of organisations, including the Ministry of Justice, Griffin Society; Independent Police Commission on the Future of Policing, Home Office Affairs Select Committee and the British and International Associations of Women Police.  

Dr Silvestri is currently supervising postgraduate research students across a range of areas including policing and transgender hate crime, police responses to rape, prostitution and exiting, women offenders and prison based education.

If you have a research proposal within her interest areas and wish to study at the University of Kent, please email her to discuss further. 

External Roles 

• Executive Committee member of British Society of Criminology 
  
• Chair of Women, Crime and Criminal Justice Network (BSC) 
  
• Steering group member of Policing Research Network (BSC) 
  
• Member of British & International Associations of Women Police 
  
• Member of European Criminology Society 
  

External Adviser 

• Adviser to British Association of Women Police 
  
• Written/ Oral submission to Independent Commission on Future of Policing led by Lord Stevens 
  
• Academic Adviser to the Griffins Society to advise on future of Research Agenda for Women Offenders 
  
• Invited member in House of Commons Select Committee Affairs on Police Leadership 
  

Editorial Board Membership 

'Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy - Policing & Society' is widely acknowledged as the leading international academic journal specialising in the study of policing institutions and their practices. 

Series Editor (with Megan O’Neil and Steve Tong) 

'Key Themes in Policing' with Policy Press 

Peer Review Work 

• External Reviewer for Routledge, Sage, Palgrave and Federation Press. 
  
• External Reviewer for International Journal of Police Science and Management; Policing and Society Journal, Policing Journal, Howard Journal of Criminal Justice; Feminist Criminology; Women, Crime and Criminal Justice.