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Claire Cohen

Claire Cohen

Senior Lecturer

School of Social Sciences

Staff Group(s)
Criminology and Criminal Justice

Role

Claire is a Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Criminology and contributes to a range of undergraduate modules including: Current Issues in Criminology, Sex Crime and Understanding Crime and Society. Claire also supervises postgraduate and undergraduate dissertations, and acts as a personal tutor to first and final year undergraduate students.

Career overview

Prior to joining the team at NTU, Claire was eight years in post at Canterbury Christ Church University as a Senior Lecturer in Applied Criminology and the creator and Programme Director for the current BSc (Hons) Crime and Policing degree. Prior to her departure, she was also Module Leader at CCCU (originator and / or author) of the following undergraduate modules:

  • Policing and the Police (Year One)
  • Historical and Cultural Contexts of Crime and Justice (Year One)
  • Policing and Police Powers (Year Two)
  • Terrorism and Political Violence (Year Three).

Additional module initiation and creation included:

  • Policing Democracies (Year Two)
  • Policing States of Emergency (Year Two)
  • Policing and the Wider Policing Family (Year One).

Module modification and development is included, for example:

  • Victims and Victimology (Year Three)
  • Criminological Psychology (Year Two)
  • Introduction to Criminology (Year One).

Other initiatives were undertaken to enhance the student experience.

Prior to CCCU, Claire was a teacher in several Nottingham and Nottinghamshire comprehensive schools, an Assistant Examiner (AS/A-level), and has held various Civil Service posts.

Research areas

Claire's book: Cohen, Claire (2014) Male Rape is a Feminist Issue: Feminism, Governmentality and Male Rape, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, is a research monograph that seeks to problematize knowledge and practices regarding 'male rape'. In so doing, it engages with traditional substantive areas such as law and social policy; as well as aspects from cultural criminology, such as film, TV, popular music, and (the so-called) 'new' media - including social media and fan fiction.

Claire is a critical criminologist with a particular interest in Foucauldian theory. Ongoing inquiry is concerned with problematizing criminology, its related ‘disciplines’ and practices. She is especially interested in areas of omission, neglect, and consensus. Her research interests are varied, but are unified by a passion for epistemology, an interest in 'power' and a subscription to the critical stances. Enduring concerns include – but are not limited to - the criminalization and scapegoating of marginalised groups, and the social construction and reification of particularized and derogated identities. For example: the Islamicization of 'terrorism'; the 'female' terrorist; the particularized construct of the male rape victim; male victims of domestic violence; the female sexual predator; child on child ‘rape’; the fan and fan-fiction – specifically slash and its variants.

Claire is currently reading for a PhD with the University of Nottingham, Center for Critical Theory, supervised by Dr Colin Wright and Professor Roger Bromley.

Previous studies include: MPhil Critical Theory (UoN); MA Critical Theory and Cultural Studies (UoN; dissertation entitled “The reification of the Muslim ‘Race’: Islamophobia and Post 9/11 sites and technologies of Power”); PGCert Social Sciences (OU); BA (Hons) Criminology (NTU; dissertation entitled "True Blue? The Political Nature of Public Order Policing").

Publications

Monograph:

Cohen, Claire (2014) Male Rape is a Feminist Issue: Feminism, Governmentality and Male Rape, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Conference Proceedings:

2008 – Towards Knowledge Led Policing and Security (Department of Law and Criminal Justice Studies, CCCU) – attended Conference.

Cohen, Claire (2007) "Feminism, Governmentality and the Political Economy of Male Rape: Why Male Rape is a Feminist Issue" (The British Society of Criminology Conference: ‘Crime and Justice in an Age of Global Insecurity’, London School of Economics, 18/09/07).

Cohen, Claire, Waters, Ben and Phipps, Jennifer (2007) "Teaching Diversity: Islamophobia, Critical Pedagogy and the Education of Criminal Justice Professionals" (The Second International Conference on Citizenship & Human Rights in Education: 'Education and Extremism', Roehampton University, 07/07/07).

See all of Claire Cohen's publications...

Press expertise

  • Male rape
  • Male victims
  • Slash fiction
  • Victimology
  • Rape Crisis/Feminism
  • Criminal justice policy and practice regarding male rape and female sexual offending
  • Legislation regarding male rape and female sexual offending