Rate My Professor Jo Phoenix

Professor Jo Phoenix is Professor of Criminology in the School of Law at the University of Reading. She earned her BSc in Sociology from the University of Bristol in 1988, MSc in Gender and Social Policy from the same institution in 1991, and PhD in Sociology from the University of Bath in 1997. With over 35 years of research experience in criminology, her academic interests center on sex, gender, sexualities and justice, youth justice and punishment, the production of criminological knowledge, and research ethics. Her work explores the criminalization and punishment of marginalized women and young people, connections between poverty, social welfare, and crime, prostitution policy reform, child sexual exploitation, and challenges in criminal justice and welfare policy implementation. Phoenix previously held the position of Professor in Criminology at the Open University before joining Reading.

Phoenix has significantly influenced criminology education across UK universities through extensive curriculum development, including designing undergraduate programmes and modules. At Reading, she teaches a dedicated criminology module to LLB Law finalists and developed the new BSc Criminology programme, incorporating ethics workshops, real ethical dilemmas, and dissertation projects using empirical crime and justice datasets. Her key publications include Making Sense of Prostitution (1999), Regulating Sex for Sale: Prostitution Policy Reform in the UK (2009, Policy Press), and Against Youth Justice and Youth Governance, for Youth Penality (2016, British Journal of Criminology). She authored the first sustained study of women in UK prisons, sparking academic focus on poverty, male violence victimhood, and women's criminal justice experiences. Phoenix advises policymakers as a member of the Changing Lives Stage Project Influencers’ Group, shaping national policy on sexually exploited adults, and serves on the Advisory Board of Sex Matters, contributing to policy reform in women and criminal justice. She welcomes PhD supervision and actively engages students in practical criminological research.