معرفی
Dr Jude Towers serves as Associate Head of School for the School of Law & Criminal Justice at Edge Hill University, where she holds a Senior Lectureship position since 2022. Her academic career spans multiple institutions including Lancaster University (as Senior Research Associate and Lecturer in Sociology) and Liverpool John Moores University (as Senior Lecturer in Policing). She maintains active external roles as an External Examiner for the BSc Professional Policing degree at University College London and has served as Training and Learning Strand Lead for the N8 Policing Research Partnership (2015-2020) and Co-Investigator for the UKRI-funded Violence, Abuse and Mental Health Network (2019-2023).
Her educational background includes a PhD in Economic Inequality and Intimate Partner Violence against Women from Lancaster University (2013), an MRes in An Evaluation of the Use of Statistical Evidence in the Production and Legitimation of Official Policy on Domestic Violence in the UK (2009), a BA in Global Politics (2008), and an Academic Practice PGCert from Liverpool John Moores University (2020).
Towers specializes in knowledge creation and exchange between academia and public/third sector organizations, with particular expertise in the measurement of social phenomena related to Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWGs). Her research demonstrates a consistent focus on how data is conceptualized and used within criminal justice contexts, especially policing. She brings strategic leadership to her work, prioritizing evidence-informed decision-making while fostering collaborative environments for knowledge production.
Her publication record reveals evolving research interests from foundational work on domestic violence measurement to current projects examining mental health diversion panels and administrative data collection in UK police forces. The trajectory shows increasing engagement with practical applications of research in policing and criminal justice settings, with recent work focusing on operational challenges in data collection and mental health interventions within law enforcement contexts.
- Excellence in Analysis Award (2020)
Towers currently supervises four PhD students researching domestic violence prevention orders, police responses to coercive control, public order command preparedness, and big data in serious crimes investigations. She has successfully supervised two PhD completions. Her grant portfolio includes projects funded by the European Parliament, EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinators Office, and charities. Current projects include the Blue Light Professionals Fitness and Wellbeing Service (2025-) and the ARC: Applied Research Design Consultancy Enterprise and Innovation Lab (2024-2025).
She contributes to the Applied Criminal Justice and Policing Research Centre and participates in knowledge exchange initiatives that bridge academic research with practical policing applications. Her leadership extends to professional development programs including the Aurora Women in Leadership (2024) and Edge Hill University Leadership (2024-25) programmes.
