Julie Berg

Dr Julie Berg is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Glasgow’s School of Social and Political Sciences and Director of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR). She previously held a full-time research and teaching position at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and is a senior research fellow in UCT’s Global Risk Governance Programme. Her work focuses on plural policing, security governance in small island states, and decolonized criminology. Key affiliations include SCCJR, the Small Islands Security Governance Research Group, and editorial roles in criminology journals.

Research interests center on state/non-state security nodes, private security’s role in governance, and responses to climate harms. She co-leads a global team advancing security governance in small islands, emphasizing historical colonial contexts and Indigenous knowledge systems. Over 60 publications span policing reform, polycentric governance, and harmscapes. Recent grants include studies on violence prevention policymaking and police accountability.

Teaching includes undergraduate courses on criminology and environmental crime, and postgraduate programs in global security and criminological theory. Supervision focuses on plural policing, nodal governance, and security responses to climate change. Her work bridges academic research with policy impact, particularly in Southern African and small-island development contexts.