Conversation with Prof. Claire Hamilton

Conversations with Criminologists

The metrics and criminology, a critical review; A conversation with Prof Claire Hamilton

The foundations of Criminology in Ireland can be traced via the emergence of academic programmes of study that began as interdisciplinary projects led by a diverse group of individuals. Prof Hamilton was involved in the first MA criminology in Ireland and her origins in the faculty of Law in Trinity College Dublin informed her work on this degree. Importantly, Claire’s practice experience was important in the development of Criminology programmes, because in the early days of the field in Ireland, practitioners, including Gardai, social workers were a significant part of the student body. Prof Hamilton’s academic work is informed by her legal training but she also draws significantly from the sociological literature on Culture(s) of Control and she applies this to a range of cases including human rights and counter terrorism as well as securitisation more broadly. In this volume, Claire also refers to a theme that is prominent amongst other contributors and that is the issue of metrics and quantifiable variables and how in a jurisdiction like Ireland measurement might be addressed.