I came to academia in 2021 after a 25-year career in journalism reporting on justice issues. My research interests span criminal justice, social justice and journalism.

I have a long-term commitment to miscarriages of justice, prisoners' rights, social justice and access to justice and legal aid.

Recent research

My edited collection Murder, Wrongful Conviction and the Law: An International Comparitive Anaysis was published by Routledge in 2023. It featured chapters from experts on miscarriages of justice in 14 countries: France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain, US, Argentina, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan.  Each contributor was asked to provide an estimate of how many miscarriages of justice there might be in their jurisdiction; how often convictions were overturned; to describe the legal mechanism for the correction of a wrongful conviction; outline arrangements for compensation; identify common causes of miscarriages; and to explore the profile of miscarriages of justice. 

My most recent book was Justice in the Time of Austerity (Bristol University Press, 2021), and was written with an academic at Cardiff University, Daniel Newman. We conducted over original 200 interviews with people as they went through the justice system over the course of one year in a variety of settings from food banks, asylum seeker destitution services, homeless shelters to MP surgeries and court waiting rooms.

This book, according to  Shami Chakrabarti, is a 'call to arms'. 'If you are a tribute of the people who has ever poured scorn on activist lawyers, I dare you to read this. If you are a lawyer, or even even a concerned citizen, who has never felt comfortable with the activist tag, it just may tempt you to reconsider.'

Policy work

In June 2022, I was appointed special adviser to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Miscarriages of Justice then chaired by Barry Sheerman MP and Sir Bob Neill with Glyn Maddocks KC and we run its secretariat. This work is undertaken under the Future of Justice Project and includes the new Westminister Commission on Forensic Science. You can read about our work on the Justice Gap here and in the Times here. 

Other

I am the founder/ editor of the Justice Gap (www.thejusticegap.com) - an online magazine about 'the law and justice - and the difference between the two'. The Justice Gap has a print magazine, Proof. The Justice Gap news reporting scheme is run by a collaboration between four universities: Cardiff, Manchester, University College London and Glasgow.

I am vice-chair of the Legal Action Group which campaigns for access to justice on behalf of people and communities who would otherwise by denied. 

I am also a patron of Hackney Community Law Centre; and on the advisory board of the legal charity APPEAL which investigates miscarrages of justice.

Journalism

I have written regularly for the Guardian, Observer (www.theguardian.com/profile/jonrobins), Independent and Independent on Sunday (www.independent.co.uk/author/jon-robins) as well as the Times, magazines and specialist journals.

I am twice winner of the Bar Council's journalist of the year; won the inaugural Halsbury Law award for journalism; and was shortlisted for the Criminal Justice Alliance's journalist of the year award. 

I’ve written a number of books, including Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the crisis in our justice system (Biteback, 2018) described by the Secret Barrister as ‘a no-holds-barred insight into the serious and often overlooked miscarriages of justice that stalk our broken justice system'. The journalist Catherine Baksi called it a book that 'informs, shocks and demands a response. It demands justice.'

BOOKS

• Justice in a Time of Austerity (Bristol University Press, 2021 - with Dr Dan Newman) which featured more than 200 original interviews conducted in food banks, homeless shelters, destitution services for asylum seekers, law centres and citizens advice bureaux, courts waiting rooms. Interview on Transforming Society podcast here and read about the project in the Guardian here.
• Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the crisis in our justice system (Biteback Press, 2018): This book examines the inability of our justice system to get to grips with miscarriages of justice by looking at cases of serious injustice over the last 20 years (interview on BBC South News here).
• The First Miscarriage of Justice (Waterside Press, 2014): an account of one man’s 43 year campaign to overturn his conviction. The Tony Stock case has been described as “one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice in modern times“ - as mentioned in the House of Commons.
• The Justice Gap: Whatever happened to legal aid? (Legal Action Group, 2008 with Steve Hynes)
• People Power: how to campaign and make a difference (LawPack/ Daily Telegraph, 2008 with Paul Stookes)