College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Professor named Criminology President

​​​​​​​Professor Lesley McAra, Chair of Penology in the University’s School of Law, has been elected as President of the European Society of Criminology.

Professor Lesley McAra
Professor Lesley McAra, Chair of Penology in the School of Law, University of Edinburgh

Founded in 2000, the Society brings together leading experts in criminology from across the globe to foster criminological scholarship, research, education and training.  

Professor McAra was voted in at the Society’s annual conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

European ties

She will take up her post in 2019 and plans to use the role to celebrate what European criminology has achieved in the past and consider how to make it more effective in the future.

I’m very honoured and humbled by the election. I think the timing of the appointment is eloquent. Never, has the Society been more salient than in these turbulent times when the post-war European project has become increasingly under threat.

The Society’s strength lies in its capacity to forge new research networks and collaborations, build robust evidence and enable us to engage, challenge and enlighten. As we move towards Brexit, this appointment is a statement from the Society about connecting the strong academic networks that stretch between the UK and the rest of Europe.

Professor Lesley McAra Chair of Penology in the School of Law, University of Edinburgh

Related links

European Society of Criminology 

Study at the Edinburgh Law School