Curriculum Vitae

Academic qualifications

  • 2003: PhD in Sociology, University of Bristol. Thesis title: ‘Miscarriages of Justice: Exception to the Rule?’
  • 1996: BSc (Hons) in Sociology (First Class), University of Bristol.

Academic roles

  • Since 2012: Reader in Sociology and Law, Law School and School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS), University of Bristol.
  • 2007-2012: Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Law, Law School and the Department of Sociology, University of Bristol.
  • 2004-2007: Lecturer in Sociology and Law, Law School and Department of Sociology, University of Bristol.
  • 2003-2004: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Bristol.
  • 2001-2003: Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA), Department of Sociology, University of Bristol.

Professional activity

  • Since September 2019: Founder and Director, Empowering the innocent (ETI) (click here for information).
  • 2014–2015: Board Member, Innocence Network (click here for more information).
  • 2005-2015: Founder and Director, University of Bristol Innocence Project (UoBIP) (click here for more information).
  • 2004-2015: Founder and Director, Innocence Network UK (INUK) (click here for more information).
  • 2004 – 2013: Founding Steering Group Member, Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence (PPMI), which lobbies on behalf of prisoners maintaining innocence. ‘Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence’ was the title of a public presentation that Michael gave on the challenges facing life-sentenced prisoners maintaining innocence at the invitation of Bruce Kent (PPMI’s first Chair). It led to the group being set up and gave PPMI its name (Click here for more information).
  • 2003 – 2013: Treasurer and Steering Group Member, Standing Conference for the Arts and Social Sciences (SCASS).
  • 2002 – 2003: Steering Group Member, Standing Conference for the Arts and Social Sciences (SCASS).

Awards and Prizes

  • Attorney General’s Pro Bono Award: ‘Best Contribution by a Team of Students.’
  • Attorney General’s Pro Bono Award: ‘Law School Category.’
  • Michael Young Prize, sponsored by the ESRC and The Young Foundation.
  • Bristol Law Society Annual Pro Bono Award.
  • Inaugural University of Bristol Public Engagement Award.
  • Inaugural Radical Statistics Group Critical Essay Prize.
  • Evelyn Millar Barstow Prize for Outstanding Performance in Undergraduate Sociology, University of Bristol.

Teaching

Michael teaches in the general area of crime, harm and justice, always adopting a critical enquiring approach to his subject matter. A creative and innovative teacher who employs a critical pedagogy approach to highlight the power structures at the heart of notions of crime, justice and punishment in society, he has had teaching leadership roles in his subject areas throughout his academic career at the University of Bristol. Significantly, Michael devised and created the major units in his field that he coordinates or has coordinated at the University of Bristol in both the Law School (Crime, Justice and Society, 2004-2021, and Criminology, since 2015) and in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) (A Sociology of Crime and Justice, since 2003).

Research

Michael’s research is multidisciplinary, straddling sociology, criminology, law, philosophy and psychology.

It centres miscarriage of justice and claims of factual innocence by alleged victims of false allegations and/or wrongful conviction and/or imprisonment unable to overturn their convictions within the existing arrangements.

He has researched and written extensively on the criminal justice system to define and emphasise the likely scale, causes and forms of harm associated with false allegations, miscarriages of justice and/or wrongful convictions of innocent victims. Through this work, he has highlighted the limitations and/or outright failings of the Parole Board, Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in dealing with claims of factual innocence by alleged innocent victims of wrongful conviction and/or imprisonment.

Another feature of his research is an evaluation of the construction and deployments of forms of criminal justice system knowledge. This has included philosophical conceptual analyses of how ‘truth’, ‘justice’, ‘innocence’, ‘fairness’, ‘integrity’, ‘harm’ and ‘victim’ are understood and operationalized by competing discourses in the realm of the criminal justice system and how they shape individual thinking and public attitudes and provide consent and legitimacy to governmental exercises of criminal justice system power.

The practical concern at the heart of Michael’s research is always to identify any lessons that might be learned from false allegations and wrongful convictions and translated into legislative and/or policy reforms that might prevent future false allegations and the wrongful conviction and/or imprisonment of innocent victims and redress the harms that they cause to existing victims.

Social theorists that Dr Naughton has utilised in his research include Michel Foucault, Zygmunt Bauman, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Sigmund Freud.

Publications

Michael is the author or editor of four books: The innocent and the criminal justice system (2013, Palgrave Macmillan) (click here); Rethinking miscarriages of justice: Beyond the tip of the iceberg (2012 [2007], Palgrave Macmillan) (click here); The Criminal Cases Review Commission: Hope for the innocent? (Editor, 2012 [2009], Palgrave Macmillan) (click here); and, Claims of innocence: An introduction to wrongful convictions and how they might be challenged (with Tan, G., 2010, University of Bristol/LexisNexis) (click here).

In addition, he has over 80 further publications in peer-reviewed academic journals, edited book collections, professional journals, broadsheet newspapers and official reports, many of which are freely available on this website (click here).

Academic presentations

To share his research within academia, Michael has given over 20 refereed conference papers on his researches to leading academic conferences relating to his fields of interest, including to the annual conferences of the British Society of Criminology, European Society of Criminology, Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA), Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) and the European Group for the Study of Deviancy and Social Control (click here for details).

Public Engagement

Michael has also given more than 50 invited presentations on issues relating to his research to professional, public and third sector conferences in the UK, including for LawWorks (Solicitors Pro Bono Group), PILnet (Public Interest Lawyers Network), Association of Prison Lawyers, Parole Board of England and Wales, Independent Monitoring Board for Prisons (IMB), Law Society for England and Wales, South West, Law Society of Wales, Law Society of Ireland, Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association (CALA), Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence (PPMI),  Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (MOJO), United Against Injustice (UAI) and Falsely Accused Teachers and Carers (FACT) (click here for details).

Media

Michael has been interviewed widely in national newspapers and television and radio programmes on his work and a range of criminal justice issues, including for The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, BBC 1, BBC Panorama, BBC Rough Justice, BBC News 24, ITV, GMTV, HTV, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, as well as international newspapers, radio and television programmes in Norway, Armenia, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland (click here for details).

Impact

Michael has been invited to consult with Members of Parliament, Parliamentary Committees and criminal justice system policy makers domestically and internationally and to give presentations to a host of other specialist conferences and events. This includes giving invited written and oral evidence on his research to the UK Parliamentary Justice Committee, two invited presentations in the UK House of Commons, an invited presentation to the US. Department of Justice in Washington D.C., as well as several other invited consultations and conference papers in the United States, China, Armenia, Italy, Norway, Canada, and several in Ireland.

These activities have contributed to several major reforms at home and abroad, including reforms to the prison rules on the treatment of prisoners maintaining innocence and to the Attorney General’s guidelines on disclosure and access to evidence post-conviction for alleged victims of wrongful convictions who seek to mount an appeal or make an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He influenced the Bill for a new right of appeal for alleged victims of wrongful convictions in South Australia. And, he contributed to the consultation for the establishment of a Canadian Criminal Cases Review Commission  (click here further details).

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. Research is assessed every 6 or 7 years. The REF 2014 was the first exercise to assess the impact of research outside of academia. Almost 7,000 Impact Case Studies were submitted to REF 2014 by universities in the UK. Michael’s work was submitted by the University of Bristol as an Impact Case Study, ‘Innocence: assisting victims of wrongful imprisonment’, and was one of three which collectively were ranked as 2nd in the UK by the Sociology Panel.

Michael was also invited by both the Law School and the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS), University of Bristol, to develop his impacts for the Research Exercise Framework (REF) 2021.