Research Fellow in Quantitative Research on Women, Crime and Justice University of Birmingham in United Kingdom

The University of Birmingham is seeking a Research Fellow (Quantitative Researcher) to join the Women, Crime and Justice Research Group in the School of Social Policy and Society. Based in Edgbaston, Birmingham, the role contributes to research designed to improve outcomes for women involved in the criminal justice system and strengthen the evidence base on effective interventions and services.

The Research Fellow will work on the Effective Women’s Centre Phase III project, supported by the JABBS Foundation. The project brings together quantitative social research, criminology, social policy and public health perspectives to examine what works for women in contact with the criminal justice system. Research themes include gender-responsive interventions, diversion, trauma, risk and need assessment, and outcomes associated with women’s centres.

A major part of the position involves designing and conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The postholder will undertake literature searches across academic and grey literature, screen studies, extract data, assess risk of bias and synthesise evidence quantitatively or narratively where studies cannot be pooled. They will also translate research questions into analysis plans, interpret findings and contribute to methods and results for academic papers, reports and policy-facing outputs.

The role additionally involves data-intensive research using administrative and linked datasets. The Research Fellow may contribute to applications for access to trusted research environments, including the ONS Secure Research Service, SAIL Databank and NHS England’s Secure Data Environment. This includes developing proposals, data specifications and linkage requests, addressing information governance and ethics requirements, and preparing and analysing data in accordance with secure-environment and disclosure-control rules.

The successful researcher will contribute to research bids, publications, seminars and broader research activities while developing their own coherent lines of enquiry within the group’s programme. The role offers an opportunity to work with advanced quantitative approaches, including multilevel, count, survival, structural equation and psychometric modelling, as well as dependent-effect-size methods and certainty-of-evidence frameworks. The group also values research that can be communicated clearly to policymakers, funders, practitioners and wider disciplinary audiences.

Professor Simon Pemberton is available for informal enquiries. The position is part of the University of Birmingham’s research environment, with opportunities to collaborate across criminology, social policy, public health and quantitative social science.