Dr James Pickles is a Criminologist at the University of Brighton at the School of Humanities and Social Science. After undertaking a Masters of Research in Social Sciences, he completed his PhD at Northumbria University in 2018 through a funded studentship. James has published his work in well established international journals such as Policing & Society, Journal of LGBT Youth, Qualitative Research, and International Review of Victimology. Alongside publishing empirical data he has also published methodological commentaries on ethical research.

James' research focuses on violence against minority communities, specially anti-LGBT+ 'hate' crime. A former youth worker who has run several youth groups across the North East of England, he is particularly interested in how young people access support for their experiences of victimisation and violence.

His current research focuses on trans people's experiences of online hate and abuse and is currently writing a report on his latest project exploring this.

James is interested in receiving postgraduate research proposals in and around his areas of expertise. These include:

• violence against minority/minoritised groups
• youth victimisation
• young people's access to justice
• hate crime
• trauma and healing
• identity-based violence within an intersectional framework (gender, sexuality age, class, disability, race)

James has been lecturing undergraduate students since 2016, moving to full-time employment as Lecturer in Criminology at Sheffield Hallam University in 2018, before coming to Brighton in 2021. He teaches a variety of criminology modules. As a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he utilises research informed teaching to provide students with the most up to date scholarship in the field. A particular interest of James' is to use emotion-based pedagogy, by engaging with students feelings and emotions about the topics they study alongside their thoughts.