Dr Gill Buck
Associate Professor
Dr Gillian Buck is Associate Professor of Social Work in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Society at the University of Chester, UK, where she teaches, mentors and supervises staff and postgraduate researchers. She is also co-director of the Prison Health research group at the university of Nottingham, providing leadership support to international scholars theorising the growing role of the voluntary sector in criminal justice. Gill is an experienced researcher and lecturer in the related fields of social work and criminology. She leads modules on the social work BA, MA and Degree apprenticeships, teaching research methods, human development, youth justice, coproduction and suicide first aid.
Gill is an experienced lecturer, having taught criminal justice and social work since 2006. She teaches theories of human development informed by biological, psychological and social research and the ways these apply to social work and criminal justice practice. Gill also teaches research methods and supervises social work students to develop MA and PhD theses. Prior to teaching in higher education, Gill worked as a social worker in youth justice and with charities responding to sexual violence. She brings these experiences to her teaching, providing specialist sessions across the social work curriculum. As a Suicide First Aid Associate tutor she also upskills social work students with life saving first aid skills. Beyond the university, Gill delivers 'learning together' workshops, supporting access to higher education for people with criminal convictions.
Gill's research has focused on peer mentoring in criminal justice, coproduced and user-led community provision, and the ways that meaningful participation could advance social research, social justice practice and the regulation of criminal justice institutions. Gill is currently co-Investigator on a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded project which aims to reconceptualise prison regulation for safer societies. From October 2024 she will lead her own UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship examining lived experience led criminal justice across the UK and Ireland.
Gill has published widely, presented at national and international conferences and supervised PhD students to successful completion. Gill regularly reviews manuscripts for book and journal publishers and is a member of the Cheshire and Merseyside Social Work Teaching Partnership (CMSWTP) 'research hub', where she plays an active role connecting social work practitioners with researchers to advance evidence-based practice. Gill has an interest in participatory and arts informed research and collaborates with artists and experts by experience in an effort to make research accessible.
Authored Books
Buck, G. (2020) Peer Mentoring in Criminal Justice. Oxon: Routledge.
"Peer mentoring in criminal justice has a long history, but a remarkably thin theoretical and research base, considering the rich potential of this work to transform our ideas about criminality and the justice process. Buck’s comprehensive treatment of the subject is exactly what is needed, therefore -- a genuine breakthrough that will become a sort of ‘bible’ for future research in this area." (Shadd Maruna, Professor of Criminology, Queen’s University Belfast).
Journal Articles
Buck, G. (2019a). Politicisation or Professionalisation? Exploring Divergent Aims Within UK Voluntary Sector Peer Mentoring. The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 58(3), 349-365.
Buck, G. (2019b). ‘It’s a tug of war between the person I used to be and the person I want to be’: The terror, complexity and limits of leaving crime behind. Illness, Crisis and Loss. 27(2) 101–118.
Tomczak, P., & Buck, G. (2019a). The Criminal Justice Voluntary Sector: Concepts and an Agenda for an Emerging Field. The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 58(3), 276-297.
margin-right:0px">Tomczak, P., & Buck, G. (2019b). The Penal Voluntary Sector: A Hybrid Sociology. The British Journal of Criminology, 59(4), 898-918.
Buck, G. (2018). The core conditions of peer mentoring. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 18(2), 190-206.
Buck, G., Lawrence, A., & Ragonese, E. (2017). Exploring peer mentoring as a form of innovative practice with young people at risk of child sexual exploitation. British Journal of Social Work, 47(6), 1745-1763.
Buck, G. (2017). “I Wanted to Feel the way they did: Mimesis as a Situational Dynamic of Peer Mentoring by Ex-Offenders. Deviant Behavior, 38(9), 1027-1041.
Chapters
Buck, G., Harriott, P., Ryan, K., Ryan, N., Tomczak, P. (forthcoming 2020, invited) ‘All our justice: People with convictions and ‘participatory’ criminal justice’ in Duffy, J. and Beresford, P. (Eds.) Handbook of Service User Involvement in Human Services Research and Education. Oxon: Routledge.
Buck, G. & Creaney, S. (forthcoming 2020, invited). Mental Health, Young People and Punishments. In Mental health and punishments: Critical perspectives in theory and practice. Oxon: Routledge. In press.
Buck, G. (2019, invited) ‘Mentoring’, in Graham, H., McNeill, F., Raynor, P., Taxman, F., Trotter, C. & Ugwudike, P. (Eds). Routledge companion to rehabilitative work in criminal justice. Oxon: Routledge.
Website links
- PhD Criminology (2016) Keele University.
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2015).
- Certificate of Professional Development, (2009) Planning for Work based Learning and Assessment (Social Work Student Supervision). Liverpool John Moores University.
- Professional Certificate in Effective Practice (Youth Justice) (2006) Nottingham Trent University.
- MA/Professional Diploma in Social Work, and The Frances Peck Memorial Award for ‘outstanding contribution to service users’ (2003) University of Liverpool.
- BA Literature, Life and Thought (First Class Honours) (2001) Liverpool John Moore’s University.
- Member of the National Association for Youth Justice (2015 – present).
- Member of the British Society of Criminology (2011 – present).
- Member of the Howard League for Penal Reform (2011 – present).
- Registered social worker with the General Social Care Council (2004 – 2012).