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Jennifer Fleetwood

Senior Lecturer in Criminology

School of Policy & Global Affairs Department of Sociology and Criminology

Contact details

About

Overview

Jennifer is a sociologist and criminologist broadly interested in personal narrative and ‘crime’.

Drawing on interviews and ethnographic research in prisons in Ecuador, her PhD examined the role of women in drug trafficking. Drug Mules: Women in the International Cocaine Trade (2014, Palgrave MacMillan) won the British Society of Criminology Book Prize in 2015. She has also written about sentencing reform for drug offences, and the use of the death penalty for drug mules, many of whom are women. She continues to research and write in this area and undertakes expert witness work on the subject.

She’s a leading proponent of narrative criminology and co-edited The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology (2019, Emerald) with Lois Presser, Sveinung Sandberg and Thomas Ugelvik, and Narrating Justice and Hope: How Good Stories Counter Crime and Harm (2025, NYU Press) with Lois Presser and Sveinung Sandberg. Her most recent book What We Talk About When We Talk About Crime (2024, Notting Hill Editions) examines the rise of personal narratives about crime in the public sphere.

Jennifer joined City in January 2024, and has previously taught at Goldsmiths, University of London as well as the University of Greenwich, University of Leicester and University of Kent. She is a Fellow of the HEA and has a Post Graduate certificate in Education.

Jennifer welcomes proposals from prospective doctoral students for qualitative research, especially using ethnography creative methods, or a narrative approach.

Employment

  • Senior Lecturer, City, University of London, United Kingdom, January 2025 - present

Languages

Spanish - Latin American (can read, speak, understand spoken)

Publications

Publications by category

Books (4)

  • Presser, L., Fleetwood, J. and Sandberg, S. (2025). Narrating Justice and Hope How Good Stories Counter Crime and Harm. NYU Press. ISBN 9781479824502.
  • Fleetwood, J. (2024). What we talk about when we talk about crime. Kendal: Notting Hill Editions. ISBN 9781912559534.
  • Fleetwood, J., Presser, L., Sandberg, S. and Ugelvik, T. (Eds.), (2019). The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology. Emerald Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781787690066.
  • Fleetwood, J. (2014). Drug Mules Women in the International Cocaine Trade. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137271891.

Chapters (5)

  • Fleetwood, J. and Chatwin, C. (2023). Gender Representations in Online Modafinil Markets. Digital Transformations of Illicit Drug Markets: Reconfiguration and Continuity (pp. 109-126). Emerald Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781800438699.
  • Fleetwood, J. (2023). Women's role in illegal drug production, selling and trafficking. Understanding Drug Dealing and Illicit Drug Markets (pp. 150-170). Routledge.
  • Fleetwood, J. and Sandberg, S. (2021). Narrative Criminology and Ethnography. The Oxford Handbook of Ethnographies of Crime and Criminal Justice (pp. 246-268). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190904500.
  • In Fleetwood, J., Presser, L., Sandberg, S. and Ugelvik, T. (Eds.), (2019). Introduction. In The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology (pp. 01-21). Emerald Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781787690066.
  • Fleetwood, J. and Turner, J. (2017). The Backpacker’s Guide to the Prison: (In)Formalizing Prison Boundaries in Latin America. The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism (pp. 887-908). Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 9781137561343.

Journal articles (20)

Professional activities

Editorial activity (3)

  • I joined the international advisory board in July 2020 and became and Editor in January 2025., Editor at Crime, Media, Culture., January 2025 - present.
  • I joined the editorial board in 2020, and became an editor in February 2022., Editor, British Journal of Criminology, February 2022 - present.
  • I'm on the editorial board for the crime and deviance theme., Editorial Board Member, Sociology Compass, December 2014 - present.

Radio programme

  • Thinking Allowed. BBC Radio 4 (2025). Crime Stories. Laurie Taylor explores the fascination for true crime stories. He's joined by Jennifer Fleetwood, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at City, University of London, whose latest work considers the remarkable rise in the number of people who speak publicly about their experience of crime. Personal accounts used to be confined to the police station and the courtroom, but today bookshops heave with autobiographies by prisoners, criminals, police and barristers while streaming platforms host hours of interviews so how easy is it for the 'truth' to come out? Louise Wattis, Assistant Professor in the Department: Social Sciences ·at Northumbria University, Newcastle looks at the skyrocketing interest in true crime as a form of popular entertainment. What do we know about the appeal of 'Hardman' biographies of violent criminals, a hugely popular subgenre, particularly for male readers?