Biography: Dr. Michelle A. McManus

Dr. Michelle McManus is the Head of Criminal Justice at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). Since taking up this post in October 2019, she has been successful in securing research funds from Home Office, Department for Education, Welsh Government and more local projects with Police Forces, Local Authorities and Charities, exploring areas such as: child criminal exploitation, children safeguarding, domestic abuse, multi-agency working, early intervention and prevention, and more specifically on county lines exploitation and serious youth violence risk.

Michelle is the Western Europe and UK research lead for the ‘Envisaging the future of policing and public health globally’ as part of the Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health. This global project seeks to respond in a timely way to the current attention and reflection on the role of policing in addressing complex issues with health, criminal justice and social justice impacts and implications at their core. Michelle is also the co-convener of the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association Special Interest Group (GLEPHA SIG) on ‘Law Enforcement and Emergencies’. The purpose of this GLEPHA SIG is to explore the roles and challenges experienced by law enforcement during health emergencies, particularly those caused by infectious diseases. We ran our first global workshop with leaders across the world on 9th march 2021.

Prior to her current role at LJMU, Michelle was the National Research Lead for Public Health and Policing at Public Health Wales, leading the evaluation for the Early Action Together programme (Police and Adverse Childhood Experiences [ACEs]). She has been a keynote and guest speaker at events and conferences globally and nationally on how criminal justice organizations can achieve a more trauma informed approach in practice.

Michelle’s background as part of her PhD (completed in 2012) also co-created the original Kent Internet Risk Assessment Tool (KIRAT), which is used an intelligence tool by law enforcement agencies in prioritizing those indecent image offenders most likely to be contact sexually abusing children. The KIRAT tool is now used across 24 EU countries, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.