Phil Scraton

Phil Scraton (born 3 May 1949) is a British criminologist, academic and author. He is a social researcher, known particularly for his investigative work into the context, circumstances and aftermath of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. More recently, he was a member of the Hillsborough Independent Panel and headed its research. Currently he is Professor Emeritus, School of Law at Queen's University Belfast, and Director of the Childhood, Transition and Social Justice Initiative.

His research includes the investigation of and inquiry into controversial deaths, most notably the Hillsborough disaster on 15 April 1989 in which 96 football fans were crushed to death. He has also researched deaths in custody, the marginalization and criminalization of children and young people, the politics of imprisonment, and the analysis of disasters and their impact on the bereaved and survivors.

Scraton was born in 1949 in Wallasey, Wirral, Merseyside (formerly Cheshire) and moved to Liverpool in the late 1960s. He studied Sociology at the University of Liverpool, taking a BA and an MA by research. His Masters thesis "Images of Deviance and Politics of Assimilation" examined institutional racism against the Irish Travelling community in Liverpool. His doctoral thesis "Unreasonable Force: Class, Marginality and the Political Autonomy of the Police" was awarded by Lancaster University and focused on policing in the context of the United Kingdom's inner city disturbances in the early 1980s and the 1984/85 Coal Dispute. A qualified teacher, he holds an Advanced Diploma in Outdoor Education. In December 2016 he received an honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of Liverpool.

In 1979, Scraton joined the Open University's academic staff as a member of the 'Crime, Justice and Society' course team, contributing also to the Social Sciences' Foundation Course. In 1984 at Edge Hill College, with Kathryn Chadwick, he established the Centre for Studies in Crime and Social Justice, developing the University's first Masters and Doctoral programmes. Promoted to Professor in 1990 he remained Director of the Centre until 2003. In 2000 he was awarded a Nuffield grant to set up a disasters' research archive and to examine the aftermath of disasters and other traumatising events. In 2001 he and Chadwick were awarded an ESRC Seminars Award to hold six two-day seminars on the theme Disasters: Origins, Consequences, Aftermath bringing together researchers, practitioners, campaigners, bereaved and survivors. A member of the Young People, Power and Justice collective, he edited its collection Childhood' in 'Crisis? (UCL Press/ Routledge 1997). In September 2003, he was appointed to a Chair in Criminology in the School of Law at Queen's University, Belfast. He has held visiting scholarships at the University of Western Sydney, Monash University Melbourne and the University of Sydney. In 2013 he was awarded a Lowenstein Fellowship at Amherst College, Massachusetts. In 2014 he was Visiting Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire and in 2016 at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is the all-Ireland representative for the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control.

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