London Metropolitan University is spearheading a new initiative to bring together academics and professionals working in criminal justice and related areas.
Date: 12/02/2013
London Metropolitan University is spearheading a new initiative to bring together academics and professionals working in criminal justice and related areas.
The London Practitioner Forum is the first of its kind and sees professionals from policing, the probation service, social services and academia meet to discuss current issues in the sector.
Dr Wendy Fitzgibbon, Criminologist in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, is running the forum. She said: “The idea is to enable academics and practitioners to meet in a non-formal setting. Those who work on the front line receive some nutrition from academics, who in turn are challenged by the practitioners. Everyone benefits from the forums.”
The first meeting of the forum was held in January and debated 'Privatisation in Public Sector Agencies'. It was both well attended and well received.
The forum comes at a time when government agencies are in the public spotlight as never before. There is a need for dialogue between relevant academics, students, politicians and policy analysts and the project aims to fulfil this need. It is testament to the expertise found in London Met’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.
"The forum feeds in to the MSc Criminology and PhD programmes at London Met, so our students benefit from this work as well," added Wendy (pictured).
The next meeting of the London Practitioner Forum takes place on Thursday 21st March with the topic 'Child Sexual Exploitation’.
Please contact w.fitzgibbon@londonmet.ac.uk for more details and to join a mailing list.
