Crime: meet our Challenge Champions
Dr Shaun S. Yates has worked at various posts within the UK criminal justice system, including His Majesty's Courts, Tribunals Service, and the National Probation Service. His central research focuses on the lower criminal courts of England and Wales (the Magistrates’ courts) and efficiency-focused policy reform.
In 2023, Dr Yates founded the multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional undergraduate online platform, The Journal of Crime & Justice Dissertations (JCJD). This platform showcases excellence in undergraduate research and creates a cross-institutional community of aspiring researchers.
Dr Yates has engaged with the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales and has submitted evidence to Lord Leveson’s 2025 independent review of the criminal justice system. In 2025, Dr Yates has also arranged a workshop with international researchers to share policy reform ideas and directions for future reform, focusing on the problem of ‘over-efficiency’.
Dr Yates is also involved with local crime and justice focused initiatives. In 2025, he serves as part of a roundtable for Islington and Angel, to aid in the development of their Crime Reduction Strategy. This work requires engaging with a multi-agency group involving the police, local business owners, Crown Prosecution Service staff and others to reduce crime in the community and improve quality of life. He also serves as part of an advisory group for Transform Justice. Here, Dr Yates supports the delivery of the charity’s CourtWatch London 2.0 project by facilitating and participating in the training of court watch volunteers. Dr Yates also served as an advisory group member in 2023 for the original CourtWatch London project. Over these years, Dr Yates has supported the charity in its efforts to promote the democratic accountability of the lower criminal courts.
In 2025, Dr Yates also served as a United Nations Volunteer by providing quality education to a range of students based in Sierra Leone on statistics in public health research.
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Dr Shaun S. Yates