Janet Foster

Janet Foster is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at LSE. She has also worked at the Universities of Cambridge and Warwick. She is the author of two sole authored books Villains: Crime and Community in the Inner City (Routledge, 1990); Docklands: cultures in conflict, worlds in collision (UCL Press, 1999) and is currently writing a book on murder investigation, Dealing with violent death everyday: an analysis of murder investigators at work. She has extensive research experience in communities and policing, has published widely and has been on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Criminology and Policing and Society. She has also published in the prestigious Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Janet directed the Diploma and Master's programme in Applied Criminology for senior police officers at Cambridge University in the 1990s, co-led the evaluation of the impact of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry on policing, and has worked as an adviser on policing issues in Britain and Europe. Between 2006 and 2009, Janet was seconded to The Police Foundation—an independent charity dedicated to improving policing for the benefit of the public. During that time she worked with two UK police forces on action research projects that sought to use empirical research to improve policing practice. She was also editor of the Ideas in British Policing series. Janet has been a special adviser to HM Treasury, the Home Office, and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies.

Research Interests

Janet's work has spanned a number of different areas within Criminology (including offending, crime prevention and policing) and Sociology (urban change, communities and social exclusion). In recent years Janet has focused on policing – particularly police cultures, neighbourhood policing, diversity and murder investigation. She is also interested in applied criminology seeking to use her academic skills to shape and change policing practice.

External Activities

Involved in a range of different policy related work including submitting written evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on police training; an academic adviser on Sir Ronnie Flanagan's Policing Review (2007), and on the HMIC Thematic on Frontline Supervision (Leading from the Frontline, 2008). Other activities have included being an invited participant in the Urban Summit organised by the Deputy Prime Minister's Office (2002); an advisor to the Police Leadership and Powers Unit in the Home Office and to H.M. Treasury (2002/3), and an invited participant in work for the EC (CEPOL) initiative on community policing for member countries and those wishing to join the EC involving work in France and the Netherlands (2002 and 2003).