Mike studied sociology at undergraduate level and then pursued a doctorate in civil and welfare law. His first teaching job was at the University of Leicester where he taught social work and probation students, which is where he first developed his interests in criminology.
Mike is especially interested in policing, the treatment of the mentally ill within the criminal justice system, and human rights. He was for 10 years involved in training the police locally, and he has conducted several large-scale research projects on the police. Mike has also been a visiting professor in the USA where has studied the interactions of police, mental health agencies and the mentally ill. Apart from all this academic stuff, Mike likes Welsh rugby, skiing and most things Italian.
Mike has conducted research on the organisation and delivery of police training; juvenile diversion schemes; equal opportunities policies in the NHS; the DNA data-base in the UK; police accountability; the work and role of the probation service; and the treatment of the mentally ill within the criminal justice system.
The main part of Mike’s teaching consists of two compulsory undergraduate models – Operational Policing Issues, and The Criminal Justice System in England and Wales.
- Police Force, Police Service: Care and Control in Britain, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1994, jointly edited with Saul Becker, pp. 1-243.
- 'The Importance of Context: Qualitative Research and the Study of Leadership', Leadership Quarterly, (with A. Bryman), Vol.7. No.3. Fall 1996, pp.353-370.
- 'The Madison Model of Community Care for the Mentally Ill: Some lessons for Britain', Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, Vol. 21, No. 3, 1999, pp.221-34.
- Crime and Social Policy, Gildredge Press, 2000, pp.1-148.
- Crime Reduction and the Law, edited with Kate Moss, Routledge, 2005.