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Dr Victoria Cooper

Vickie Cooper

Profile summary

Professional biography

I am Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Criminology. I joined the Open University in 2015, based in the Deparment of Social Policy and Criminology and School of Social Sciences and Global Studies. I am currently a Module Team member on DD212, Understanding Criminology, which is a 60 credit, level 2 undergraduate module on our Criminology degree programme; and on DD804 Crime and Global Justice, which is a 120 credit postgraduate module on our MA Crime and Justice. I am the Qualification Lead for our BA (Honours) Criminology and Law degree programme (Q92/ W52), and co-lead the Grand Union, Doctoral Training Partnership for Social Justice and Inequalities pathway at the OU.  

My Qualifications
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (Liverpool John Moores University, 2012)
  • PhD in Social and Economic Research (Sheffield Hallam University, 2009)
  • MRes Urban Sociology (Glasgow University, 2005)
  • BA (hons) Management and Organisation Studies (Lancaster University, 2002)
PhD Students
  • Dr Carly Speed (completed 2019): co-supervised with Professor Joe Sim and David Scott. Secrecy and Denial in Matters of Life and Death: A critical analysis of deaths in psychiatric detention,1845-2018
  • Dr Angela Charles (completed 2024): co-supervised with Professor Deborah Drake. Black Women in Prison: Exploring the intersections of race and gender in expereinces of imprisonment.
  • Dr Angela Collins (completed 2024): co-supervised with Abigail Rowe. 'Just Look Busy': Experiences of criminal justice supervision at a women's centre in the north of England. 
  • Andrew Sproul: Housing First (present): co-supervising with Daniel McCulloch. A comparative study of Housing First policy programme to eradicate homelessness in Scotland and Finland
  • Jasmine Holland-Gilbert (present): co-supervising with Professor Steve Pile and Professor Michael Keith. Infrastructuring the Adapative City: Making, building and learning participatory democracy in Camden

Research interests

My research focuses on homelessness in relation to: housing, hostels, the criminal justice system, community punishment, geographical displacement and evictions. I am interested in how society contains and manages homeless groups through these various institutions. Specifically, I am interested in the relationship between the evictions, homelessness and housing markets. I have also studied the relationship between homelessness and mortality, with a critical focus on the lack of meaningful intervention to such an extraordinary phenomenon. I have led on research projects commissioned by homeless charities and local authorities. I am currently leading on an Open Societal Challenges project with Tai Pawb housing justice organisation in Wales, critially exploring experiences of decarbonising housing for disadvantaged households in private and social rented housing in Wales. 

Publications

 

Cooper V. and McCulloch, D. (2023) 'Mystification, Violence and Women's Homelessness', in D.G Scott and J.Sim (eds.) Demystifyng Power, Crime and Social Harm: The work and legacy of Steven Box. Critical Criminological Perspectives. Cham. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.407-429. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46213-9_16

Cooper V. and McCulloch, D. (2023) Homelessness and Mortality: an extraordinary and unextraordinary phenomenon?, Mortality  1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2023.2176214

Cooper, V. and Mansfield, M. (2020) 'Marketisation of women’s organisations in the criminal justice sector', in K. Albertson, M. Corcoran, M.Phillips and J. Phillips (eds.) Marketisation and Privatisation in Criminal Justice. Policy Press, pp. 203-220,​

Cooper, V. and Paton, K., (2019). Accumulation by repossession: the political economy of evictions under austerity. Urban Geography, 42(5), pp.583-602. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2019.1659695​
 

Cooper, V. (2019) Book Review: Personalizing the State: The Anthropology of Law, Politics and Welfare in Austerity Britain, by Insa Lee Koch.Theoretical Criminologyhttps://doi.org/10.1177/1362480619850696

Cooper, V. and Whyte, D. (2018) Grenfell, Austerity and Institutional Violence, Sociological Research Online, https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780418800066

Cooper, V. and Whyte, D. (2017) (eds.) The Violence of Austerity. Pluto Press

Mansfield, M. and Cooper, V. (2017) 'The Failure to Protect Women in the Criminal Justice System', in V. Cooper, and D. Whyte (eds.) The Violence of Austerity. Pluto press. pp.188-194

Paton, K. and Cooper, V.  (2017) 'Domicide, Eviction and Repossession', in V. Cooper, and D. Whyte (eds.) The Violence of Austerity. Pluto press, pp. 164-170

Cooper, V. and Paton, K. (2017) 'The new urban frontier of everyday evictions: Contemporary state practices of revanchism', in  A. Albet, N. Benach (eds.) Gentrification as a Global Strategy Neil Smith and Beyond. Taylor & Francis. pp.142-151

Cooper, V. (2017) 'No Fixed Abode: The Continuum of Policing and Incarcerating the Homeless' Policing, Vol 11 (1): 29-38.

Paton, K. and Cooper, V. (2016) 'It’s the state, stupid: 21st Century gentrification and state-led evictions, Sociological Research Online, 21 (3), 9

Cooper, V. (2016) '‘It’s all considered to be unacceptable behaviour’: Criminal justice practitioners’ experience of statutory housing duty for (ex)offenders'' Probation Journal Vol 63 (4): 433–451

Cooper, V. (2016) ‘Homelessness and Victimisation’ in K.Corteen, S. Morley, P. Taylor and J. Tunrer (eds.) A companion to crime, harm and victimisation. Policy Press, pp.95-97

Cooper, V. (2016) ‘Austerity, Harm and Victimisation’, in K.Corteen, S. Morley, P. Taylor and J. Tunrer (eds.) A companion to crime, harm and victimisation. Policy Press, pp. 11-14

Cooper, V. (2014) ‘Gendered Geographies of Punishment’ in V.Canning (ed) Sites of Confinement, European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control.

Cooper, V. and Sim, J. (2013) ‘Punishing the Detritus and the Damned, in Why Prison?’ In D. Scott (ed.) Why Prison?,Cambridge University Press, pp 189-210

Barton, A. and Cooper, V. (2012) ‘Hostels for Women and Community for Women: The ‘Semi-Penal’ Paradox’ in M. Malloch and G.McIvor (eds.) Women Punishment and Social Justice: Human Rights and Penal Practices. Routledge, pp.136-152

Cooper, V. (2010) ‘Cultivating the Business Researcher: A Biographical Account of Postgraduate Educational Research Training’ in Imrie, R and Allen, C (eds.) The Knowledge Business, London: Sage.

McKee, K and Cooper, V (2009) ‘The Paradox of Tenant Empowerment: Regulatory and Liberatory Possibilities’, Housing Theory and Society, Vol. 25, no. 2: 132 -146.

Op-eds

Cooper, V. (2015) Austerity as Organised and Bureaucratised Violence, submitted in Open Democracy Available online at https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/vickie-cooper/austerity-as-bureaucratized-and-organized-violence

Cooper, V. and Paton, K. (2015) Tenants in Danger: The Rise of Eviction Watches in Open Democracy, April 17th Available online at https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/kirsteen-paton-vickie-cooper/tenants-in-danger-rise-of-eviction-watches.

Cooper, V. (2015) ‘Bricks and Mortality: State Violence and Housing Social Policy’, Criminal Justice Matters, Issue 98.

Cooper, V and Mooney, G. (2015) Academics Against Poverty Audit Manifesto, Available online at: http://ukpovertyaudit.org/

Cooper, V. (2014) ‘Social Housing not Social Cleansing’, Red Pepper Magazine Aug/Sept Issue 197.

Book Reviews 

Cooper, V. (2014) The Ashgate Research Companion to Moral Panics by C. Krinsky (ed.) Reviewed in Youth Justice, Vol 14 (1): 103-105.

Cooper, V. (2011) Media and Society: Critical Perspectives by G. Burton, 2nd Edition, Reviewed in Youth Justice, Vol 11 (2): 191-192.

Cooper, V. (2011) Hard Lives, Mean Streets: Violence in the Lives of Homeless Women by L.J. Jasinski, K.J. Wesley, D.J. Wright, and E.E. Mustaine Reviewed in British Journal of Criminology, Vol 51(1): 229-232.

Research Reports and Briefings

Cooper, V. (2014) Rehousing Ex-prisoners in Merseyside, Liverpool: Liverpool John Moores University.

Cooper, V. (2013) No Fixed Abode: the implications for homeless people in the criminal justice system, London: Howard League for Penal Reform. 

Cooper, V. (2012) Resettlement and Floating Support in the Criminal Justice System, London: St Mungo’s.

Publications

Homelessness and mortality: an extraordinary or unextraordinary phenomenon? (2023)
Cooper, Vickie and McCulloch, Daniel
Mortality, 28(2) (pp. 220-235)


Grenfell, Austerity and Institutional Violence (2022)
Cooper, Vickie and Whyte, David
Sociological Research Online, 27(1) (pp. 207-216)


Accumulation by repossession: the political economy of evictions under austerity (2021)
Cooper, Vickie and Paton, Kirsteen
Urban Geography, 42(5) (pp. 583-602)


[Book review] Personalizing the State: The Anthropology of Law, Politics, and Welfare in Austerity Britain by Insa Lee Koch, Oxford University Press (2019-05)
Cooper, Vickie
Theoretical Criminology, 24(2)


No Fixed Abode: The Continuum of Policing and Incarcerating the Homeless (2017-03-31)
Cooper, Vickie
Policing: a journal of policy and practice, 11(1) (pp. 29-38)


‘It’s all considered to be unacceptable behaviour’: Criminal justice practitioners’ experience of statutory housing duty for (ex)offenders (2016-12-01)
Cooper, Vickie
Probation Journal, 63(4) (pp. 433-451)


It’s the state, stupid: 21st gentrification and state-led evictions (2016)
Paton, Kirsteen and Cooper, Vickie
Sociological Research Online, 21(3) (pp. 1-7)


Mystification, Violence and Women’s Homelessness (2023)
Cooper, Vickie and McCulloch, Daniel
In: Scott, David Gordon and Sim, Joe eds. Demystifying Power, Crime and Social Harm: The Work and Legacy of Steven Box. Critical Criminological Perspectives (CCRP) (pp. 407-429)
ISBN : 978-3-031-46213-9 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : Cham


Marketisation of Women’s Organisations in the Criminal Justice Sector (2020-07-03)
Cooper, Vickie and Mansfield, Maureen
In: Albertson, Kevin; Corcoran, Mary and Phillips, Jake eds. Marketisation and Privatisation in Criminal Justice (pp. 203-220)
ISBN : 978-1447345817 | Publisher : Policy Press | Published : Bristol


Everyday Evictions in the 21st Century (2018-09-16)
Cooper, Vickie and Paton, Kirsteen
In: Gray, Neil ed. Rent and its Discontents: A Century of Housing Struggle. Transforming Capitalism
ISBN : 978-1-78660-574-0 | Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield


The new urban frontier of everyday evictions: Contemporary state practices of revanchism (2017-06-26)
Cooper, Vickie and Paton, Kirsteen
In: Albet, Abel and Benach, Núria eds. Gentrification as a Global Strategy: Neil Smith and Beyond. Routledge Critical Studies in Urbanism and the City (pp. 142-151)
ISBN : 9781138234253 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London and New York


Domicide, Eviction and Repossession (2017-05-20)
Paton, Kirsteen and Cooper, Vickie
In: Cooper, Vickie and Whyte, David eds. The Violence of Austerity (pp. 164-170)
ISBN : 9780745337463 | Publisher : Pluto Press


The Failure to Protect Women in the Criminal Justice System (2017-05-20)
Mansfield, Maureen and Cooper, Vickie
In: Cooper, Vickie and Whyte, David eds. The Violence of Austerity (pp. 188-194)
ISBN : 9780745337463 | Publisher : Pluto Press


Introduction: The Violence of Austerity (2017-05-20)
Cooper, Vickie and Whyte, David
In: Cooper, Vickie and Whyte, David eds. The Violence of Austerity (pp. 1-34)
ISBN : 9780745337463 | Publisher : Pluto Press


Austerity, Harm and Victimisation (2016-06-29)
Cooper, V.
In: Corteen, Karen; Morley, Sharon; Taylor, Paul and Turner, Joanne eds. A companion to crime, harm and victimisation. Companions in Criminology and Criminal Justice (pp. 11-14)
ISBN : 978-1-4473-2572-7 | Publisher : Policy Press | Published : Croydon, UK


Homelessness and Victimisation (2016-06-29)
Cooper, Victoria
In: Corteen, Karen; Morley, Sharon; Taylor, Paul and Turner, Jo eds. A Companion to Crime, Harm and Victimisation (pp. 95-97)
ISBN : 978-1-4473-2572-7 | Publisher : Policy Press | Published : Bristol


Criminological Theories and Concepts: Book 1 (2018)
Cooper, Vickie and Phoenix, Jo eds.
ISBN : 978-1-4730-0302-6 | Publisher : The Open University | Published : Milton Keynes


Criminological Theories and Concepts: Book 2 (2018)
Cooper, Vickie and Phoenix, Jo eds.
ISBN : 978-1-4730-0303-3 | Publisher : The Open University | Published : Milton Keynes


The Violence of Austerity (2017-05-16)
Cooper, Vickie and Whyte, David eds.
ISBN : 9780745399485 | Publisher : Pluto Press | Published : London


The UK government aims to stop publishing stats on homeless people’s deaths – here’s why that’s a problem (2024-02-22)
Cooper, Victoria and McCulloch, Daniel
The Conversation


Lessons from Covid-19: It’s time for a radical approach to homelessness and housing policies (2021)
McCulloch, Daniel and Cooper, Victoria
OpenLearn


Britain's dark history of criminalising homeless people in public spaces (2017-03-10)
Cooper, Victoria and McCulloch, Daniel
The Conversation