Overview
Teaching interests
My teaching is closely informed by my research into critical criminology, deviant leisure, consumer culture and social harm. I teach across a range of alternative and critical criminological theories, including zemiology, ultra-realism, cultural criminology, green criminology, sensory criminology and futures criminology. Across my teaching, I encourage students to think beyond conventional legal definitions of crime and to engage with broader questions of harm, power, inequality, violence and justice.
My research on leisure, consumption, environmental harm and emerging digital and algorithmic harms directly shapes the examples, debates and case studies I use in the classroom. I am particularly interested in helping students understand how apparently ordinary or pleasurable aspects of social life — such as tourism, nightlife, gambling, fashion, social media and consumer culture — can be connected to wider structures of exploitation, exclusion and environmental damage. This allows students to see criminology not simply as the study of crime and criminal justice, but as a way of critically examining the organisation of everyday life.
I also have a strong interest in the criminology of the future, including how criminological theory can help us anticipate and understand emerging social, technological and environmental harms. In my teaching, this means asking students to engage with questions about future crime, future harm, climate crisis, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, surveillance, consumer capitalism and changing forms of social control. My aim is to support students in developing a theoretically informed, critical and imaginative criminological perspective that can be applied to both contemporary problems and the uncertain futures they will encounter beyond university.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
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SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
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SDG 13 Climate Action
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 1 Active
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Post-Plastic Ecologies: Indigenous Knowledge, Biomimetics, and Material Futures in Practice
Tacey, I. (PI - Principal Investigator), Kilburn, J. (CoI - Co-Investigator), Smith, O. (CoI - Co-Investigator), Koyok, S. (CoI - Co-Investigator), Were, G. (CoI - Co-Investigator), Gebeshuber, I. (CoI - Co-Investigator) & Man, Z. (CoI - Co-Investigator)
1/04/26 → 30/01/27
Project: Research
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‘ Less museum and more like Disney’ The infantilisation of dark histories: Objective violence at Bodmin Jail
Lewis, S., Channing, I. & Smith, O., 29 Jun 2025, In: Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal. 17416590251351465.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile3 Downloads (Pure) -
It’s the attraction of winning that draws you in” – A qualitative investigation of reasons and facilitators for videogame loot box engagement in UK gamers
Nicklin, L. L., Spicer, S. G., Close, J., Parke, J., Smith, O., Rayman, T., Lloyd, H. & Lloyd, J., 13 May 2021, In: Journal of Clinical Medicine. 10, 10Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile62 Downloads (Pure) -
Plastic Waste and the Environmental Crisis Industry
Smith, O. & Brisman, A., 1 Jun 2021, In: Critical Criminology. 29, 0, p. 289-309Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile88 Downloads (Pure) -
The Deviant Leisure Perspective: A Theoretical Introduction
Raymen, T. & Smith, O., 2021, The Palgrave Handbook of Social Harm. Vol. 0. p. 251-279Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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The Longest Year
Raymen, T., Lloyd, A., Kuldova, T. & Smith, O., 3 Oct 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Contemporary Crime, Harm, and Ethics. 1, 1, p. i-viResearch output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile17 Downloads (Pure)
Activities
- 2 Hosting an academic visitor
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Shaq Koyok
Tacey, I. (Host), Smith, O. (Host) & Kilburn, J. (Host)
11 May 2026 → 13 May 2026Activity: Hosting a visitor › Hosting an academic visitor
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Ille Gebeshuber
Tacey, I. (Host), Kilburn, J. (Host) & Smith, O. (Host)
11 May 2026 → 13 May 2026Activity: Hosting a visitor › Hosting an academic visitor