Katie is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). Her research focuses on processes of criminalisation, specifically on the relationship between experiences of state care and justice systems involvement. She is particularly interested in youth justice and racialised and gendered (in)justices.

Katie’s ADR UK Fellowship research used linked Ministry of Justice and Department for Education data to explore the intersections between ethnicity, care experience and youth justice involvement. The project was partnered with Barnardo’s who completed a complementary qualitative project with Black care-experienced young people in prison, carried out by Listen Up. Findings from the Fellowship were widely reported in the media, have been cited in the House of Lords and are feeding into both regional and national policies to prevent the criminalisation of children in care. At the ONS Research Excellence Awards 2024, Katie was awarded the Research Impact prize in recognition of this work.

Katie is also one of the co-founders of the Administrative Data for Social Policy (ADSoP) hub at MMU which brings together researchers using administrative data to explore key policy issues. 

"Administrative data offers a powerful way to challenge injustice by turning the state’s own records into quantifiable evidence of inequalities."