Professor Kate Brown
BA (Sheffield) MA (Leeds) PhD (Leeds)
- Professor of Social Policy and Criminal Justice
Visit Professor Kate Brown's profile on the York Research Database to see a full list of publications and browse her research related activities.
Profile
Areas of expertise
- Care and control of vulnerable people
- The governance of vulnerability
- Vulnerability and policing
My research explores how vulnerability is lived, governed and understood. I am especially interested in how welfare and criminal justice interventions shape the lives of ‘vulnerable’ people. Groups I have researched and written about have included vulnerable young people, sexually exploited children, sex workers, people who use drugs and young men served with Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. I have written widely on the concept of vulnerability and its mobilisation in support and discipline, including my monograph Vulnerability and Young People: Care and Control in Policy and Practice. I am Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre and work on the Centre's County Lines and Views on Vulnerability studies.
Before working as an academic I worked in the voluntary sector for nearly ten years in services for vulnerable groups. This experience had a strong influence on my research interests. I worked as a support worker for sex workers and sexually exploited young women, moving into a national children’s charity policy/participation role on child sexual exploitation (CSE). I then worked as a manager at a young people’s drugs service and for Leeds Women's Aid. For fifteen years I was a Trustee/Chair of Trustees for Basis Yorkshire, an award-winning third sector support and advocacy project for sex workers and sexually exploited young people.
As research lead on Leeds City Council's Prostitution Strategic Partnership (2014-2016), a study I conducted informed the development of a policing model in Leeds which prioritises protection of sex workers rather than enforcement (the Leeds ‘managed approach’). A more recent study looked at the role of the Sex Work Liaison Officer (SWLO) as a form of policing vulnerability; working with police, sex workers and sex work support services to develop best practice models in these roles. I have an interest in co-production with those deemed vulnerable and in 2016 worked with young people who had experienced sexual exploitation to make an animation and set of resources about moving on from CSE (a partnership with Basis Yorkshire).
