Click here to generate a text only version of this page
Click here to go to the Birkbeck, University of London home page
Click here for help with using the Birkbeck web site
Department of Psychological Sciences
Printer icon Printable version 

Dr Belinda BROOKS-GORDON C. Psychol. B.Sc. (Mddx), M.Phil., Ph.D. (Cantab).

Position: Reader in Psychology and Social Policy

Office:  Room 527, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College,

 Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX

Phone:  +44 (0)20 7079 0890 (dir)

Fax:  +44 20 7631 6312

Email:  b.brooks-gordon@bbk.ac.uk

Research

My main research interests address psychological, legal, and social policy questions on gender, rights, sexuality, and the law.

It has become increasingly difficult for policy makers and regulators to untangle the complex and inter-related nature of the sex industry and sexual offences. In addition, outcome measures of current interventions do little to improve our understanding of the process by which the subjects in this industry understand and interpret the sexual and social practices in which they are involved. One strand of my research addresses the socio-cultural, psychological, philosophical, and human rights issues which surround sexual and gendered behaviour. The majority of this work has been funded by the ESRC (although early work was funded by the Wingate Fellowship and the Ian Karten Educational Trust) and carried out with co-operation of the Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit.

A second strand of my research involves the investigation into a series of psychological interventions for offenders. I have completed four systematic reviews of psychological interventions for adults and juveniles convicted of sexual offences. These reviews were funded by the Department of Health R&D in Forensic Mental Health and carried out with Charlotte Bilby. We analyzed a range of quantitative and qualitative studies as well as compiling a database of the research in this area.

One of the major challenges for future behavioural intervention trials is to speed up the evolution of the interventions. In this regard I designed and validated evidence-based methods of assessment to measure and evaluate the work of clinicians engaged in the psychotherapeutic treatment of offenders. Additionally, the ATSO annual residential study school and conference 2001 enabled clinicians to engage with the work of international experts in the field.

Ongoing scholarly activity includes membership of the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group, an interdisciplinary research group. This is an inter-disciplinary group of scholars who hold an annual research seminar series each year.  The Group’s research have produced seven volumes to date. One of our recent volumes which I edited, with Loraine Gelsthorpe, Andrew Bainham, and Martin Johnson, the book Sexual Positions: Diversity and the Law (2004), Hart Publishing, Oxford. I organized, with Professor Michael Freeman at UCL a colloquium on Psychology and the Law, in July 2005. I organized a residential seminar around the theme of Death in September 2006 funded by the John Hall Fund at the University of Cambridge. This resulted in the book for the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group series entitled "Death Rites & Rights". On the Death Rites and Rights project I worked with Professor Hazel Biggs, Professor Steve Hedley, Professor Emily Jackson, and Professor David Price, to complete a project in which we answered the questions: What is death, how is death defined in law and medicine, and how is it regulated in these fields? Do the dead have legal rights? What is one allowed to have done or not done with one’s body after death? What are the rights of the next of kin in this respect?  What compensation exists for death and how is death valued? What is happening to the law on euthanasia and suicide? Is there a human right to die? What is the principle of the sanctity of life? What of criminal offences against the dead? How are the traditions of death still played out in religion? How do the police deal with sudden death? Ritual and material culture in contemporary death was explored with Professor Daniel Miller, and with Dr Elizabeth Hallam we investigated what happens to donated bodies in biomedical settings of anatomical education. I funded the project with a grant from the John Hall Fund and launched the book at Trinity College, Cambridge with funding from the publisher.

I recently collaborated on a piece of funded work on the use of film as a took in work with young offenders. A research grant was been given by the Children’s Welfare Development Council with which we analyzed the use of film as a therapeutic tool in work with young offenders.

Research and strategic collaboration has continued with the Home Office Offending Behaviour Programme Unit (OBPU) for many years.

Policy work also includes working on, and often campaigning against, clauses in parliamentary bills including those in the Sexual Offences Act 2004, the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 and the Policing and Crime Act 2009. Speechwriting, writing amendments and drafting policy, written memoranda and oral evidence to parliamentary select and scrutiny committees frequent result from my work and interest in policy.

Teaching responsibilities include MSc Psychological Research Methods, BSc Forensic Psychology (4th yr option), Social Psychology (2nd yr core).

I have supervised PhD students researching the following topics: migration; the therapeutic relationship in sex offender treatment; understanding the needs of mental health staff (supervised with Prof S Frosh), and employment experiences after leaving prison (with Dr Virginia Eatough).

I welcome applications from well-qualified prospective PhD students wishing to undertake critical social policy research, empirical psychological research within the criminal justice system, particularly from a rights-based perspective. I shall shortly be starting a project on the relationship between the moral responsibility of the state and the role of morality in conteporary social policy.

Selected publications

Books

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M., Ebtehaj, F., Herring, J., Johnson, M. & Richards, M. (2007). Death rites and rights. Oxford: Hart Publishing.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M. (2006). The Price of sex: Prostitution, policy, and society. Willan, Cullompton Devon.*

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M., & Freeman, M. (2006). Law and psychology: Current legal issues. Oxford University Press.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M., Gelsthorpe, L. R. G., Johnson, M. H., &  Bainham, A. (2004). Sexuality repositioned: Diversity and the law. Oxford: Hart Publishing.

*Short listed for the 2007 British Society of Criminology Book Prize.

Chapters in books

  • B. Brooks-Gordon (2010) ‘Sexually Harmful Adults’ in Forensic Psychology by Graham J. Towl (Editor), David A. Crighton (Editor) ISBN: 978-1-4051-8618-6. Paperback, 496 pages, in press for February 2010, Wiley-Blackwell. (Textbook for the BPS Diploma in Forensic Psychology. Oxford. Blackwell.)

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M., & Freeman, M. (2006). Law and psychology: Issues for to-day. In B.M. Brooks-Gordon, & M.Freeman (Eds.), Law and psychology: Current legal issues. Oxford University Press.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M., Bilby, C., &  Kenworthy, T. (2004).Sexual offenders: A systematic review of psychological treatment. In B. M. Brooks-Gordon, L. R. Gelsthorpe, M. H. Johnson, & A. Bainham (Eds.), Sexuality repositioned: Diversity and the law (pp.395-429). Oxford: Hart Publishing.

  • Bainham, A. &  Brooks-Gordon, B. (2004).Reforming the law on sexual offences.In B. M. Brooks-Gordon, L. R. Gelsthorpe, M. H. Johnson, &  A. Bainham (Eds.) Sexuality repositioned: Diversity and the law (pp.260-296). Oxford:Hart Publishing.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M. (2003). Contact in containment.  In A. Bainham, B. Lindley, M. P. M. Richards, & L. Trinder  (Eds.) Children and their families: Contact, rights and welfare (pp.313-334). Oxford: Hart Publishing.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M., & Gelsthorpe, L. R. (2002).The hiring and selling of bodies.  In A. Bainham, S. Day Sclater, & M. P. M. Richards(Eds.) Body Lore and Laws(pp. 193- 210). Oxford: Hart Publishing.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

  • Cusick, L., Kinnell, H ., Brooks-Gordon, B. and Campbell, R (2009) Wild Guesses and Conflated Meanings: Estimating the size of the sex worker population in Britain. Journal of Critical Social Policy, Vol. 29(4), pp703-719.

  • Aresti, A., Eatough, V. and Brooks-Gordon (2009) ‘Doing time after time: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of reformed ex-prisoners experiences of self-change, identity and career opportunities’. Psychology Crime and Law.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M. (2008) State Violence Towards Sex Workers, British Medical Journal, 2008; 337:a:908 doi:10.1136/bmj.a908

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M. (2008) The Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill 2008 and law reform, Archbold News, Issue 3, p4-6, April, 2008.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M. and Bilby, C. (2006). Psychological interventions for treatment of sexual offenders. British Medical Journal, 333, 5-6.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M., Bilby, C., & Wells, H. (2006). Sexual offenders: A systematic review on psychological interventions. Part I Quantitative Studies. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, 17(3), 442-466.

  • Bilby, C., Brooks-Gordon, B. M., and Wells, H. (2006). Sexual offenders: A systematic review on psychological interventions. Part II Quantitative Studies. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, 17(3), 467-484.

  • Brooks- Gordon, B. M. (2005). Clients and commercial sex: Reflections on paying the price: A consultation paper on prostitution. Criminal Law Review, 425-443.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M. and Bainham, A. (2004). Prisoners’ families and the regulation of contact. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 26(3), 263-280.

  • Kenworthy, Adams, C., Bilby, C., Brooks-Gordon, B., & Fenton, M (2004). Psychological interventions for those who have sexually offended or at risk of offending. (Cochrane Review). The Cochrane Library, Issue 3. John Wiley, Chichester. Oxford: Update Software.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M., & Gelsthorpe, L. R. (2003). Prostitutes’ clients, Ken Livingstone, and a new Trojan horse.  Howard Journal  of Criminal Justice, 42(5), 437-451.

  • Brooks-Gordon, B. M. (2003). Gendered provisions in the sexual offences Bill 2003: Prostitution’ criminal justice matters. Gender and Crime, 53, 28-33.
Department of Psychological Sciences, School of Science, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX.