Ashley Stephen Bushell

I am a Criminologist and Criminal Justice Practitioner with a strong interdisciplinary background, combining extensive frontline experience in offender management with ongoing academic research. I am currently employed as an Operations Manager at Cranstoun, where I specialise in criminal justice and oversee services that support individuals with complex needs, including those affected by substance use, offending behaviour, and social disadvantage.

My career has spanned both public and private sectors, including roles within HM Prison and Probation Service and G4S, where I managed high‑risk individuals with histories of violent and sexual offending, substance misuse, and mental health difficulties.

This operational experience continues to inform my academic and professional practice. Alongside my professional role, I am undertaking a PhD in Criminology at the University of Portsmouth. My research examines the normalisation and acceptance of violence among prison staff—an area that speaks to wider questions of institutional culture, staff wellbeing, and rehabilitative practice. This builds on earlier postgraduate work exploring the relationship between personality disorder and offending behaviour.

I have also held academic positions across several UK universities, teaching and supervising across criminology, sociology, and psychology programmes. These roles have included module leadership, curriculum development, and the delivery of lectures and seminars at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

My areas of expertise include offender rehabilitation, risk assessment (including OASys and SARA), trauma‑informed practice, and the management of individuals within the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway.

I welcome opportunities to collaborate on research, policy development, and service improvement across the fields of criminal justice, forensic psychology, and social care.

With a robust background in both academic and criminal justice settings, I bring extensive teaching experience across undergraduate and postgraduate criminology, sociology, and psychology programmes. I have developed and led modules, delivered lectures and seminars, supervised dissertations, and provided detailed student feedback across multiple institutions, including the University of Law, Arden University, and Bath Spa University.

My teaching spans topics such as theories of crime, media and crime, research methods, and neurodiversity in the criminal justice system. This is complemented by my professional practice as a Prison and Probation Practitioner, enriching my teaching with real-world insight into criminal justice, risk assessment, and rehabilitation.

Modules of Teaching:

• Mental Health and Substance Misuse in the Context of the Criminal Justice System (Module Leader - University of Worcester)
• Criminal Profiling (Module Leader - University of Worcester)
• Probation, Penology and Rehabilitation (Lecturer - University of Worcester)
• Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System (Module Leader - Arden University)
• Crime, Media and Culture (Lecturer - Arden University)
• Researching the Field (Lecturer - Arden University)
• Media, Crime and Control (Lecturer - University of Law)
• Drugs in the Criminal Justice System (Lecturer - University of Law)
• Cyber Crime (Lecturer - University of Law)

• Penology 
• Criminal Justice 
• Male Offending Behaviour 
• Violent Offending 
• Mental Health and Criminal Justice
• Substance Misuse