Dr Susan Watson
Lecturer in Criminal Justice and Social Policy
Profile
Biography
Dr Susan Watson is Lecturer in Criminal Justice and Social Policy in the School for Business and Society at the University of York, UK, where she leads the university’s criminology and criminal justice degrees. She has a BSc (First Class Honours) in Social Policy and Administration and an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy from the LSE; and an MA in Social Research and a PhD in Social Policy from the University of York. Her scholarship is concentrated on technology facilitated gendered violence, innovative qualitative research methods; and the role of technology in perpetrating structural gendered harms.
Susan is also a member of the Executive Board of the British Society of Criminology; a member of the Social Policy Association; and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Before embarking upon an academic career, Susan worked as a political campaigner for the Labour Party during its period in government between 1997 – 2005. She has also worked on criminal justice research and policy development, including time on the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee; and a large charitable foundation. Susan is proud to be an Alumnus of the London School of Economics and Political Science; and the University of York.
Departmental roles
Athena Swan co-chair
University roles
Teaching for 2025/26:
Undergraduate:
Module Lead, Crime and Justice in the Online Space (Year 3)
Module Lead, Social Harm and Injustice (Year 1)
Lecturer, Victimiology and Victimisation (Year 2)
Seminar Lead, Crime and the Life Course (Year 2)
Postgraduate:
Lecturer, Investigating Contemporary Policy Problems (MA)
Research
Overview
Susan is currently engaged in the initial stages of research considering the use of surveillance technologies in gender-based violence; and an empirical study investigating the reporting mechanisms and policy response of UK universities to the online abuse directed at academics, using Freedom of Information laws to gather data.
Susan is currently open to applications from individuals wishing to undertake doctoral research in the broad areas of gendered violence; crime and justice in the online space; and research using feminist intersectional qualitative methodologies.
Publications
Full publications list
Books:
Watson, S. (2025). Gendered Online Abuse Against Women in Public Life: More Than Just Words. Leeds. Emerald Publishing [Forthcoming]
Journal Articles:
Watson, S. (2024) ‘Taking on the World: Tackling Gender-Based Violence in the Online Space’, in M. Duggan et al. (eds) Papers from the British Criminology Conference 2023. Sustaining Futures: Remaking Criminology in an age of Global Injustice, British Society of Criminology, pp. 8–23.
Watson, S. (2023). 'Online abuse of women: an interdisciplinary scoping review of the literature', Feminist Media Studies
Watson, S. (2022). Investigating the role of social media abuse in gender-based violence: The experiences of women police officers. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1-16.
Conversation Articles:
Watson, S. (2025). Attacks on Jess Phillips show how online abuse of women is intended to keep them out of the public square. The Conversation. 10 January.
Watson, S. (2023). ‘You rarely see abuse directed at men’: a look at the sexist abuse women police officers face online, The Conversation, 9 March.
Watson, S. (2022). 'Elon Musk's Twitter Blue gives verification for a fee - this could make Twitter even less safe for women', The Conversation, 8 November.
Watson, S. (2019). ‘Analysis shows horrifying extent of abuse sent to women MPs via Twitter’ The Conversation, 6 November.
Conference Presentations
Using NVivo as an integral part of a scoping review of the literature (2021)
NVivo Virtual Conference
Investigating the role of social media abuse in gender-based violence: the experiences of women police officers (2021)
British Society of Criminology Conference
The impact of online abuse on the growing digital society (2021)
Architecture, Media, and Politics Society at the University of Hertfordshire
Exploring the impact of online abuse on gender-based violence: the ethical challenges of innovative research using new media (2020)
New Methods New Media Network Conference
“Words do hurt me”: The impact of online abuse on gender-based violence (2020)
Social Policy Association Conference (This presentation and associated paper were subsequently awarded the Excellence in Doctoral Research Award for 2021).
Using social media for gendered research (2020)
University of York, Department of Social Policy PhD forum
