Professor Nigel South

 A criminology expert at the University of Essex has been presented with a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his long-standing and distinguished international contribution to the field.

Professor Nigel South received the award for his contribution to critical criminology from the American Society of Criminology's Division on Critical Criminology. It was presented at the Society’s Annual Meeting on 21 November in Atlanta. It is the third major award for an Essex criminologist this year.

Professor South, of the University’s Centre for Criminology, has been a leading scholar in critical criminology for years and a pioneer in the area of green criminology, ecocide and crimes against the environment.

A student in the Department of Sociology at Essex in the 1970s, he has held teaching and research posts in London and New York, and is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology. He is the European Editor of the journal Critical Criminology.

Presenting the award, Professor Rob White of the University of Tasmania, said: “Over the course of several decades Professor South has made a distinctive, significant and lasting contribution to the substantive nature and content of critical criminology internationally.

“Nigel South has an extensive track record of publications. He also has been active with a wide range of academic and advocacy groups pressing for progressive policies and social changes pertaining to criminal justice.”

Professor South said: “It’s a huge honour to receive this award and be recognised by colleagues in the ASC. And it’s been a great year for members of the Centre at Essex. The record of groundbreaking work in criminology and the sociology of deviance at the University goes back to Stan Cohen and Ken Plummer and today we have a great team publishing, appearing in the media and producing the third edition of our textbook which takes our research to students in the classroom.”

Earlier this year, Director of the Centre for Criminology at Essex, Professor Dick Hobbs, received the Outstanding Publication Award from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime (IASOC). He won the award for his recent book Lush Life: Constructing Organized Crime in the UK.

Hailed as the first book to trace the history and policing of British organised crime, Lush Life looks at criminal underworlds and the notion of the criminal ‘family’ firm, such as the Krays. It also looks at the precursors to British organised crime and the emergence of specialised law enforcement institutions designed to deal with this threat. It examines the various ways in which violence functions within organised crime, the role of rumour in formulating order within crime networks, and the development of the cosmopolitan criminal.

In June Professor Eamonn Carrabine, was awarded the prestigious 2012 Radzinowicz Prize by the British Journal of Criminology (BJC), one of best known prizes in the field. He received the award for his ground-breaking article ‘Just Images: Aesthetics, Ethics and Visual Criminology’.
The Radzinowicz Prize is awarded annually for the BJC article which, in the opinion of the Editor-in-Chief and editors, has made the greatest contribution to the development of criminology.

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