Jackie Hodgson has been conferred the award of Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences in recognition of her distinctive and distinguished contributions to Social Science.

The Academy of Social Sciences is the National Academy of Academics, Learned Societies and Practitioners in the Social Sciences. Its mission is to promote social sciences in the United Kingdom for the public benefit. Being an Academician means that a peer group has reviewed the standing and impact of one’s work and found it worthy of the conferment of the award of Academician.

Jackie has conducted ethnographic research in the field of criminal justice both in England and Wales and in Europe across more than two decades. Through a series of path-breaking studies of the work and practices of criminal defence lawyers, including a study commissioned by the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice (1993), her research and scholarship has had a significant impact on policy and practice. It led to the transformation of professional standards, guidelines and training for criminal defence provision in England and Wales. Her work is empirical and often comparative, and adopts a socio-legal approach to the study of criminal justice, as evidenced by her large-scale ethnographic studies of legal actors and legal processes. These studies have contributed to our understanding of legal processes by using qualitative empirical findings to challenge the effectiveness of legal norms and procedures as they operate in practice. Her work impacts on policy and practice, as well as academic scholarship, by demonstrating the limitations of legal procedural protections when legal and occupational cultures are not also addressed.

Jackie actively promotes a broader social science approach to the study of law, training the next generation of researchers through externally funded research and doctoral students. She has been elected to the Council of JUSTICE and has provided expert evidence to government bodies and the courts. She is the Director of Warwick Law School’s Centre for Criminal Justice, which promotes a socio-legal and interdisciplinary approach to the study of law. She is currently establishing a cross-faculty Centre for Operational Policing Research with colleagues from Psychology and the Warwick Business School.

Blackstock, J., Lloyd-Cape, E., Hodgson, J., Ogorodova, A. and Spronken, T. Inside Police Custody: An Empirical Account of Suspects' Rights in Four Jurisdictions, published by Intersentia.

This empirical study of the procedural rights of suspects in four EU jurisdictions – France, Scotland, the Netherlands and England and Wales – focuses on three of the procedural rights set out in the EU Roadmap for strengthening the procedural rights of suspected or accused persons in criminal proceedings – the right to interpretation and translation; the right to information and the letter of rights; and the right to legal assistance before and during police interrogation.

In order to examine how these procedural rights operate in practice, the authors spent between two and five months in eight field sites across the four jurisdictions. During this time they observed lawyers and police officers during the period of police custody; examined case records; observed lawyer-client consultations; and attended suspect interrogations. Furthermore, they conducted 75 interviews with police officers, lawyers and accredited legal representatives.

In addition to producing and analysing empirical data, the authors have developed training guidelines for lawyers and police officers involved in the police detention process for use across the EU. The project team also produced a series of recommendations for legislative and policy changes designed to ensure better enforcement of the EU procedural rights’ instruments that are envisaged in the Stockholm Programme.

The study was carried out by the Universities of Maastricht, Warwick and the West of England, together with JUSTICE. Avon and Somerset Police and the Open Society Justice Initiative were also collaborators on the project.

"Inside Police Custody has been eagerly awaited by those working on legislation and policy in the field of procedural protections for suspects at EU level. This ground-breaking study is the first piece of comparative research to look at what actually happens in the process of police detention and interrogation in different jurisdictions, and to assess the differences in practice. Its findings will make essential reading and inform legislation at both EU and national level."
Caroline Morgan, Principal Administrator and former Procedural Rights Team Leader at the European Commission.