Biography
Dr Natasha Du Rose is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences and Professions at London Metropolitan University. She leads the Criminology and International Security degree. She is also the School's impact lead for the Research Excellence Framework. Since March 2026 she has been Director of Research at the Centre for Security Research and Studies.
Natasha is a criminologist and qualitative researcher. Her expertise covers custodial research, desistance and rehabilitation, women and crime, violence against women and girls, drug policy, policing, and organised crime. Her work brings together the political economy of crime with desistance and identity transformation.
Her recent independent study at His Majesty's Prison Fosse Way drew on in-depth interviews with 46 men involved in the Key4Life rehabilitation programme as participants or mentors. The report traces how institutions failed these men long before prison, and how the programme helped them recover a sense of who they were. The report, "You're Not Just a Number" (2026), has been shared with ministers, senior leaders in His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service, the Justice Committee and all Regional Probation Directors. Natasha has submitted evidence from the study to the Independent Review of the Prison System and to Clinks, and presented the findings to employers at Beazley. She is a member of the Ministry of Justice Evidence and Partnerships Hub academic network and His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service Insights Platform. The project also brought mentors with lived experience of the criminal justice system into her teaching and created work placements for students.
Her earlier research on women's drug use was published as The Governance of Female Drug Users (Policy Press, 2015). The book received a double four-star rating in an internal Research Excellence Framework assessment. She has also researched social control by neglect with Professor John Lea, restorative approaches in schools with King's College London, and the service needs of stimulant users with the University of Reading.
Natasha has over twenty years of experience teaching in higher education, across levels 4 to 8. She has designed and led modules on criminological theory, research methods, organised crime, policing, drug policy, and gender, crime and victimization. She supervises doctoral and Professional Doctorate students and has been a doctoral external examiner at Birkbeck, University of London.
She holds a doctorate in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Bath, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. She also holds a Master of Philosophy in Social Science from the University of Bath, a Master of Science in Women's Studies with Distinction from the University of Bristol, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Literature from the University of Warwick. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is working towards Senior Fellowship. She is a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform and the International Corrections and Prisons Association. Before academia, she worked in women's crisis services in Bristol as a helpline counsellor and coordinator.
Natasha welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD candidates. She is happy to supervise projects across criminology, criminal justice and security. Areas include prisons, rehabilitation and desistance, women, crime and victimization, violence against women and girls, drug policy, policing, organised crime, social harm, and migration and social control. She particularly welcomes theoretical, qualitative and practice-based research, and applicants working in criminal justice, policing, security or the voluntary sector.
Natasha welcomes media and speaking enquiries on prison rehabilitation, desistance, drug policy, and women in the criminal justice system.
Publications
Du Rose, N. (forthcoming) 'When Someone Sees You', Inside Time.
Du Rose, N. (2026) You're Not Just a Number: Experiences of the Key4Life Programme at HMP Fosse Way. London: Centre for Applied Research in Empowering Society, London Metropolitan University. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20085362 Republished by the Centre for Security Research and Studies.
Executive summary: https://data.censec.org.uk/books/reports/Key4Life%20Executive%20Summary%20(Digital%20Edition).pdf
Full report: https://data.censec.org.uk/books/reports/Key4Life%20Report%20(Digital%20Edition).pdf
Du Rose, N. (2017) 'Marginalised drug using women's pleasure and agency', Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 31, pp. 42 to 64.
Du Rose, N. (2015) The Governance of Female Drug Users: Women's Experiences of Drug Policy. Bristol: Policy Press.
Du Rose, N. and Skinns, L. (2013) 'Challenging the punitive turn in youth justice through restorative approaches in schools', in Sellman, E., Cremin, H. and McCluskey, G. (eds) Restorative Approaches to Conflict in Schools. London: Routledge.
Du Rose, N. and Keene, J. (2009) Stimulant Drug Use in Reading. Reading: University of Reading and Reading Drug and Alcohol Action Team.
Du Rose, N., Skinns, L. and Hough, M. (2009) An Evaluation of Bristol Restorative Approaches in Schools. London: King's College London.
