Professor Tim McSweeney is Dawes Chair of Public Protection at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), where he leads the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute's (IPPPRI) Dawes Trust-funded, data-driven programme of research on public protection. Based at ARU's Chelmsford campus, he has over 25 years' experience of research, evaluation and consultancy on the processes and impacts of criminal justice interventions across the UK, Europe and Australia. Before joining ARU in 2023, Tim was Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, with earlier academic posts at Middlesex University, Birkbeck, University of London, the University of New South Wales (UNSW), King's College London, and London South Bank University. He has also held senior research roles with the Home Office (Counter-Extremism Unit) and Ministry of Justice (HM Inspectorate of Prisons).

His recent research interests include ‘organised’ and group-based offending, youth crime and serious violence, the supervision of those sentenced by the courts, drug and alcohol dependency within the criminal justice system, and support for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. 

He has previously served in an advisory capacity to the World Health Organisation, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the European Union Drugs Agency, and Council of Europe, and holds a PhD in Public Health and Community Medicine from UNSW in Sydney, Australia.

Professional profiles

• University staff profile: https://www.aru.ac.uk/people/tim-mcsweeney 
• ORCID
• ResearchGate
• International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI): https://www.aru.ac.uk/international-policing-and-public-protection-research-institute