University criminology expert is awarded OBE in New Year Honours List 2024

University of Gloucestershire’s Professor Jane Monckton-Smith – a world leading authority on criminology – has been awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year Honours List 2024.

Jane, Professor of Public Protection at the University and internationally renowned for her pioneering research into coercive control, stalking and domestic homicide, has been recognised for her services to Criminal Justice.

The findings of Professor Monckton-Smith’s 2018 groundbreaking study – the Homicide Timeline: the eight stages – is a model used by police forces and agencies across the UK and Europe as they make risk assessments in cases of coercive control, domestic abuse and stalking.

Professor Monckton-Smith looked at hundreds of cases of partner homicide to identify ways to spot increasing risk of harm, and she identified an emerging pattern that could be broken down into eight separate stages.

A forensic criminologist, she reviews homicide cases for the Home Office, and advises police forces, review panels and legal professionals on complex and high-profile murders, which informs her teaching and supports student learning.

Professor Monckton-Smith has trained police and public protection professionals across the country and in Europe, including the National Probation Service, An Garda Síochána, the Judicial College, Icelandic Metropolitan Police, European Family Justice Alliance, Dyfed Powys Police, Staffordshire Police, Surrey Police and many others. She also works with families bereaved through homicide to help them with criminal justice processes. Students from the University work with her on cases through the Homicide Research Group.

Professor Monckton-Smith is the author or co-author of five books including In Control: Dangerous Relationships and How They End in Murder, Murder, Gender and the Media: Narratives of Dangerous Love, and Domestic Abuse, Homicide and Gender: Strategies for Policy and Practice.

Professor Monckton-Smith said: “I have the privilege of working with an exceptional team of students at University of Gloucestershire, and without them I would not be receiving this honour.

“We are passionate about our work and the bereaved families and professionals we support. This has been a real surprise and I’m absolutely delighted the work is recognised as important and impactful.”

Author Jilly Cooper, who received an Honorary Doctorate from the University in 2009 for services to literature and the county, was awarded a damehood.