About
Laura Garius is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Kingston University's School of Law, Social and Behavioural Sciences, where she has been employed since July 2022. She previously served as a Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University (2015-2020) and as Policy Lead at Release, the UK's national centre of expertise on drugs law. Her work spans academia and policy advocacy, with affiliations within the Department of Criminology, Politics and Sociology.
Her qualifications include:
- PhD in Criminology
- FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy)
- MSc Criminology & Criminal Justice
- BSc Social Psychology
Garius's research employs mixed-method approaches to examine alcohol/drug-related harm, crime prevention, and policy reform. She specializes in evaluating police-led drug diversion programs, retail theft interventions, violence causation, and festival harm-reduction strategies. Her policy work at Release focused on combating racial inequities in drug enforcement and destigmatizing substance use, producing influential reports on COVID-19 drug markets and cannabis legalization frameworks.
