Ailbhe O'Loughlin

Profile

Biography

Dr Ailbhe O'Loughlin

LLB Ling. Franc. (Dubl), MSc (Oxon), PhD (LSE)

Senior Lecturer

Deputy Director of Research (Environment)

I joined York Law School in September 2016. Previously, I taught Criminal Law at King's College London and at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). I was a guest lecturer on the Mental Health Law LLM module at LSE.

I am Associate Director of the Institute of Mental Health Research at York (IMRY).

I hold an LLB in Law and French from Trinity College Dublin and an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Oxford. I gained my PhD from LSE in 2016.

Research

Overview

My research focuses on the intersection between mental health and criminal justice, and I am particularly interested in the overlap and tensions between criminal law, mental health law and human rights law. I use both doctrinal and socio-legal methodologies in my work, and draw on theoretical frameworks from law and criminology.

Research interests

• Sentencing
• Prisons and penal policy
• Vulnerable defendants
• Personality disorder
• Risk assessment in criminal justice and mental health law
• Preventive detention in the criminal justice and mental health contexts
• Human rights

Projects

Offenders with personality disorder

My monograph Law and Personality Disorder: Human Rights, Human Risks, and Rehabilitation, was published in March 2024 in the Oxford University Press Clarendon Studies in Criminology series. It won the prestigious Society of Legal Scholars Margaret Brazier First Prize for Outstanding Mid-Career Scholarship in 2025.

Law and Personality Disorder deconstructs competing images of offenders who are diagnosed with personality disorders and the dilemmas they present, combining insights from criminology, psychiatry, psychology, and law. It critically engages with the alluring narrative that the state has a duty to protect the public from ‘dangerous’ individuals, but that it can also protect the human rights of the ‘dangerous’ by providing them with rehabilitation opportunities.

Defendants as victims

I led a collaborative research project with Dr Kate Leader (Queen Mary University of London), Dr Alice King and Dr Stephanie Classmann investigating how vulnerability and victimisation can affect a suspect or defendant’s ability to mount an adequate defence, and how the criminal justice process may exacerbate existing vulnerabilities or result in re-victimisation. This project was funded by the University of York and supported by the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre. It explored how vulnerability and victimisation can affect a suspect or defendant’s ability to mount an adequate defence, and how the criminal justice process may exacerbate existing vulnerabilities or result in re-victimisation. Our final report was published in 2024: Defendants as Victims: A Scoping Review of Vulnerability, Victimhood and Safeguards from Charge to Conviction .

Our work informed the Law Commission's 2025 background paper Defences for victims of domestic abuse who kill their abusers.

Sentencing

I regularly contribute to the work of the Sentencing Academy and have authored an effectiveness bulletin on Mental Health Treatment Requirements and an issues paper on Mental Health, Disability and Sentencing.

In 2022, I led a literature review for the Scottish Sentencing Council on sentencing offenders with mental health issues in collaboration with Dr Jay Gormley (University of Strathclyde), Dr Lucy Willmott (University of Cambridge) and Professor Julian Roberts, Dr Jonathan Bild and Anna Draper of the Sentencing Academy. The report explores the challenges of sentencing offenders with mental health issues and the available research on the outcomes associated with criminal justice and mental health disposals. It will support the Scottish Sentencing Council's commitment to undertake work on mental health and sentencing and inform the Council’s further consideration of a future sentencing guideline on this topic: Scottish Sentencing Council-report on the challenges of sentencing offenders with mental health issues

The legal consequences of a criminal conviction

I co-edited an anthology published by Hart entitled Fundamental Rights and Legal Consequences of Criminal Conviction with Sonja Meijer (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Harry Annison (University of Southampton). The book explores the consequences that a criminal conviction can have for the rights of convicted offenders both within and beyond the criminal justice system. The book is the result of a successful workshop organised by Sonja Meijer that took place at the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law in April 2017. The workshop brought together legal academics and practitioners working in countries including Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK, Hungary and Australia to present and reflect on the consequences a criminal conviction can have in Europe and beyond.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Criminal Law
• Mental Health and Mental Capacity Law
• Current Issues in Criminal Justice

Postgraduate

• Mental Health and Mental Capacity Law

I welcome inquiries from prospective PhD students within my areas of expertise.

External activities

Memberships

• Society of Legal Scholars
• Socio-Legal Studies Association

Other activities

• Member of the JUSTICE Working Party on Decision-making in Prisons
• Member of the Academic Sub-committee of the Criminal Bar Association Education Committee

Publications

Selected publications

Full publications list

A full list of publications is available on my profile page in the York Research Database.