Biography
Nicola Carr was appointed as Chair of Social Work and Social Policy in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin, in October 2024. She is an internationally recognised scholar in the fields of probation, youth justice and criminal justice policy. Prior to joining Trinity, she held academic posts at Queen"s University Belfast and the University of Nottingham, where she was Professor of Criminology. Professionally trained as a probation officer, Nicola"s practice background continues to inform her academic work and her commitment to shaping policy and practice. Her research focuses on the experiences of individuals and communities in contact with the criminal justice system. She has undertaken significant studies on probation practice, professional decision-making and wider criminal justice reforms. Her work has been supported by leading research funders such as the Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, the British Academy and the European Union, as well as governmental and non-governmental organisations. Nicola is currently leading a major comparative study examining community supervision across five countries. Nicola has published widely on penal policy, rehabilitation, youth justice, and the lived experience of justice. Her contributions extend beyond academia through media engagement, public debate, and award-winning documentary making. She has also served in advisory roles to national and European bodies, including the Council of Europe and the Confederation of European Probation.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Millings, M., Burke, L., Annison, H., Carr, N., Robinson, G., & Surridge, E., Indifference, resistance, possibility: Probation staff perspectives on the introduction of professional registration, Probation Journal, 72, (2), 2025, p202 - 218
McNeill, F., Boone, M. & Carr, N., Probation and parole in Europe: uses of, developments in, and prospects for supervisory sanctions, Crime and Justice, 2025
Carr, N., Annison, H., Burke, L., Millings, M. & Robinson, G., CONSTRAINED VOICE AND COMPLICATED LOYALTY UNDERSTANDING REASONS TO LEAVE OR STAY WORKING IN THE PROBATION SERVICE, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2025, p1 - 19, p19
Millings, M., Burke, L., Annison, H., Carr, N., Surridge, E. & Robinson, G., A fork in the road: Probation unification in England and Wales two years on, Probation Journal, 2025
Robinson, G., Annison, H., Burke, L. Carr, N. Millings, M., Surridge, E., Anchors Through Change: Exploring Identity Work in the Unified Probation Service for England & Wales,, British Journal of Criminology, https://doi.org/10.1, (azaf007, https://doi), 2025
Annison, H., Burundi, D., Millings, M., Carr, N., Robinson, G. & Burke, L., Lessons for public management reform from the insourcing of the Probation Service of England and Wales, Public Money & Management, 2025
Annison, H., Carr, N. & Guiney, T., Parole Futures: Rationalities, Institutions and Practices, First, London, Bloomsbury, 2025, 336pp
Carr, N. & Maguire, N., Community Service Orders in Ireland: Implementation, Impact and Judicial Perspectives, Irish Probation Journal, 22, 2025, p169 - 188
Annison, H., Burke, L., Carr, N., Millings, M., Robinson, G. & Surridge, E., Making Good?: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal, British Journal of Criminology, 2023
Robinson, G., Annison, H., Burke, L, Carr, N., Millings, M. & Surridge, E., Whose confidence? Regional leaders perspectives on building confidence in a reconfigured Probation Service., Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2023
Carr, N. & Smith, R., Youth Justice - Local and Global., 1st, Sage, 2023
Carr, N. & Robinson, G., Time and Punishment - New Contexts and Perspectives, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan, 2022, 257pp
Burke, L., Carr, N., Cluley, E., Collett, S. & McNeill, F., Reimagining Probation Practice: Re-forming Rehabilitation in an Age of Penal Excess, 1st, London, Routledge, 2022, 268pp
Buckley, H., Whelan, S and Carr. N., "It looked messy and it was easier just to not hear ikt": Child Protection Concerns in the Context of Domestic Violence and Relationship Breakdown, Irish Journal of Family Law, (1), 2011, p18 - 23
Helen Buckley, Sadhbh Whelan, Nicola Carr, `Like waking up in a Franz Kafka novel": Service users' experiences of the child protection system when domestic violence and acrimonious separations are involved, Children and Youth Services Review, 33, (1), 2010, p126 - 133, p126-133
Helen Buckley, Nicola Carr, Sadhbh Whelan, `Like walking on eggshells": service user views and expectations of the child protection system, Child & Family Social Work, 16, (1), 2010, p101 - 110, p101-110
Mayock, P., Bryan, A., Carr, N. & Kitching, K., Supporting LGBT Lives: A Study of the Mental Health and Well-being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People, Dublin, Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) and BeLonG To Youth Service, 2009, p1 - 186
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Maguire, N. & Carr, N., Community or Custody? A Review of Evidence and Sentencers Perspectives on Community Service orders and Short-Term Prison Sentences., 2024
Mayock, P. & Carr, N., Not Just Homelessness ... A Study of 'Out of Home' Young People in Cork, Cork, Health Service Executive, 2008
Research Expertise
Projects
- Title
- Comparing Penal Supervision
- Summary
- The scale, diversity and intensity of penal supervision (people subject to community sanctions and measures such as probation) has greatly increased in recent years, leading to suggestions that we have entered an era of `mass supervision". Three times as many people are supervised in the community as are imprisoned, yet there have been few in-depth attempts to understand the nature of supervision and its growth. This comparative research project explores supervision in situ across five nations: England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The study will generate crucial knowledge about how supervision is experienced, practiced and governed, and the socio-political conditions that influence its forms and its development. The project team will employ diverse research methods - conducting qualitative interviews with practitioners, policy makers, and those experiencing supervision; as well as policy analysis, analysis of official statistics, and collecting experiential insights via digital ethnography. https://comparingpenalsupervision.com
- Funding Agency
- Leverhulme Trust
- Date From
- 2023
- Date To
- 2026
- Title
- Rehabilitating Probation
- Summary
- Rehabilitating Probation: Rebuilding culture, identity and legitimacy in a reformed public service is a three-year (2022-2025) ESRC funded research project that aims to examine the implementation, experiences and consequences of a significant and unprecedented programme of public service reform that has brought formerly outsourced probation services back into the public sector. https://rehabilitating-probation.org.uk
- Funding Agency
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Date From
- 2022
- Date To
- 2025