Dr Bill Davies
Senior Lecturer | Leeds Beckett
Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM
Bill Davies' PhD examined the lived experiences of short sentenced prisoners.
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Biography
Bill is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Leeds Beckett University, a position he has held since 2012. Bill's PhD examined the lived experiences of short sentenced prisoners, identifying that by imprisoning people for short periods of time we are depriving those people of opportunities to better their lives. Along with a colleague, Dr Alexandria Bradley, Bill runs a Learning Together program at HMP Full Sutton, a Category A prison outside York. In excess of 40 prisoners have gained university level academic credits as a result of this program. Bill has supported a number of released prisoners with their applications to higher education.
In 2017 Bill won a national teaching award for his work within prisons, being honoured by the Worshipful Company of Educators as Inspirational Teacher of the Year. Bill has published articles on prison education, suicide ideation among male prisoners, and convict criminology. Alongside Rod Earle, their paper Earle, R., & Davies, B. (2020). Glimpses across 50 years of prison life from members of British Convict Criminology. Prison Service Journal, (250), 13-19. was awarded Winner of Best PSJ Paper of 2020.
In 2024 Bill was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by Advance HE for his work on education within prisons.
Bill teaches a Level 6 module 'The Criminology of Tattooing' and is the co-lead of the Digital Pedagogy research strand of Leeds Beckett's Centre for Research and Teaching in Higher Education (CRTHE). He is also a member of the advisory council to the Howard League for Penal Reform.
Industry Expertise (2)
Corrections
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (9)
Digital Pedagogy
Stigma
Convict Criminology
Higher Education
Criminology
Prisons
Prison Education Programs
Tattoos
Mental Health issues in Prisons
Accomplishments (3)
Best PSJ Paper (professional)
2020 Prison Service Journal
Inspirational Teacher of the Year (professional)
2017 Worshipful Company of Educators
National Teaching Fellowship (professional)
Awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by Advance HE for work on education within prisons.
Education (4)
MSc: Leeds Beckett, Digital Pedagogy
Essex: BA
Cambridge: MPhil
Hull: PhD
Affiliations (1)
- Member of the advisory council to the Howard League for Penal Reform
Links (2)
Languages (1)
- English
Media Appearances (4)
Reflecting on ‘Learning Together’
Lancaster University online
2019-04-12
It was a vibrant learning environment and we were given reading packs to accompany our weekly lectures. We explored a variety of topics in the module including; resettlement, education in prison, and desistance. Lectures were delivered by Lancaster University lecturers as well as guest speakers from other universities. My personal favourite was on convict criminology, with guest speaker Dr Bill Davies from Leeds Beckett University. A former offender, he has turned his life around, now holds a PhD in criminology, and is a senior lecturer in criminology. Dr Davies engaged the Lancaster Farms students when he spoke, and watching their faces I could see the impact his words were having on them.
When Ex-convicts Become Criminologists
SAPIENS – Anthropology Magazine online
2017-11-22
Attendee William Davies of Leeds Beckett University is very open about his past. He displays tattoos from his wrists to his elbows, and his Twitter handle is @Billthecrim. He says he uses disclosure about his criminal past, which goes back to age 11, as a sort of social currency in exchange for inmates’ time and participation in his research.
Campus close-up: New network unlocks prisons research
Times Higher Education online
2015-07-16
According to Bill Davies, senior lecturer in criminology at Leeds Beckett University, more than 150,000 people crowd into the UK's prisons...
A crime election special on Sunday Politics Yorkshire
BBC1
2019-12-01
A discussion on the cost of re-offending to society
Articles (5)
Debates in digital pedagogy within prisons
Power and Education2024 This paper provides a critical view of the digital education within the global prison estate, with a specific aim of examining the extent to which we can expect the prison system of England and Wales to embrace digital pedagogy. By presenting critical sociological theories around social hierarchies and the transitions between them that education can provide (Freire, 1972; Gramsci, 1994; Kant, 1992), the paper will be able to show how while there is a desire and appetite for increasing the digital education of those who are at the lower end of the social economic divide; without buy in from the cultural hegemonic state (Gramsci. 1994), then there is no desire to aid prisoners to be able to access the global digital community.
Creating convict criminology in the UK: a response to Aresti, Darke and Ross from members of the British Convict Criminology group
Justice, Power and Resistance2023 Responding to an earlier article (Aresti et al, 2023) by two scholars involved in convict criminology at Westminster University and a third from the US, this article mounts a defence of the British Convict Criminology group against the analysis and conclusions of the first article. We argue that convict criminology is diverse and needs to embrace different approaches that correspond to national circumstances, both in prisons and universities.
Examining the factor structure of ICD-11 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex-PTSD among prison staff exposed to potentially traumatic experiences
Psychiatry Research2021 The recently released 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) classifies posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (CPTSD) as distinct, yet related, disorders within the spectrum of trauma and stress-related disorders. This study aimed to explore the construct validity of the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ), a measure of ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD symptoms among prison governors (i.e., wardens in the U.S. and Canada).
Devastation and innovation: examining prison education during a national pandemic
Journal of Criminal Psychology2021 This paper aims to highlight the impact that Covid-19 has had on the quality of education in prisons. This study considers the restrictive approaches taken by Her Majesty’s Prison Service during this challenging time, to argue that prisoner education is not being adequately prioritised. This study highlight issues relating to the digital divide in prisons and the lack of technological advancement, which could improve educational continuity and in-cell learning.
Suicide Ideation Among Male Prisoners: Preliminary Evidence That Psychopathic Traits are Indirectly Linked to Suicide Ideation Through Thwarted Interpersonal Needs
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior2020 The relation between psychopathic traits and suicide ideation (SI) is frequently discussed but little research has examined potential mechanisms underlying this association. The interpersonal theory of suicide (ITS) proposes two mechanisms in the pathogenesis of suicidal desire: thwarted belongingness (TB) and perceived burdensomeness (PB). This study cross-sectionally tested TB and PB as possible explanatory links in the relation between psychopathic traits and SI.
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