Dr Sacha Darke

Dr Sacha Darke


I am Reader in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences.

External appointments: Visiting Lecturer in Law, University of São Paulo; Affiliate, King’s Brazil Institute, King’s College London; Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow 2020-2022.

Previous academic posts: Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Westminster (2007-2021); Lecturer in Criminology, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth (2005-2007); visiting Lecturer, School of Law, University of Westminster (1997-2005).

Higher education: Ph.D. Criminology, University of Westminster (2006); M.A. Criminal Justice, University of Southampton (1992); LL.B. Law, Second Class Honours (Upper Division), University of Southampton (1990).

Professional affiliation: Higher Education Academy (Fellow, 2007).


My research interests include Latin American prisons, prison higher education and the internationalisation of Convict Criminology. I was awarded the 2023 John Irwin Distinguished Scholar Award from the Division of Convict Criminology, American Society of Criminology.

My doctoral research focused on the use of anti-social behaviour legislation by local government crime prevention partnerships

I am currently researching community prisons in Brazil.

Key publications:

Books

Darke, S., Garces, C., Duno-Gottberg, L., & Antillano, A. (Eds.) (2021) Carceral Communities in Latin America: Troubling 21st Century Prison Regimes, London: Palgrave Macmillan. Portuguese version (2022): Comunidades Carcerárias na América Latina: Desconcertando Mundos Prisionais no Século XXI (trans: Karam, M.L.), ‎ São Paulo: Tirant Lo Blanch Brasil

Darke, S. (2018) Conviviality and Survival: Co-producing Brazilian Prison Order, London: Palgrave Macmillan. Portuguese version (2019): Convívio e Sobrevivência: Ordem Prisional em Cogovernança (trans: Karam, M.L.), Belo Horizonte: D'Placido

Chapters in books

Darke, S. (2022) Radical alternatives to punitive detention, in Sozzo, M. (Ed.) Prisons, Inmates and Governance in Latin America (pp.329-363), London: Palgrave Macmillan

Darke, S. et al. (2020) Prisoner university partnerships at Westminster, in Shecaira, S.S. et al. (Eds.) Criminologia: Estudos em Homenagem ao Alvino Augusto de Sá (pp.475-498), Belo Horizonte: D'Placido

Journal special editions

Aresti, A., & Darke, S. (Eds.) (2018) Twenty years of Convict Criminology, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, 27(2)

Darke, S., & Garces, C. (Eds.) (2017) Informal dynamics of survival in Latin American prisons, Prison Service Journal, 229

Articles in refereed journals

Aresti, A., Darke, S, & Ross, J.I. (2023) Against Bifurcation: Why it's in the best interests of Convict Criminology to be international in scope and not a collection of individual country level organizations, Justice, Power and Resistance, https://doi.org/10.1332/HINO6106

Darke, S., & Khan, O.P. (2021) Coloniality, just war and carceral injustice in Brazil, Punishment and Society, 23(5): 723-740


  • Centre for Social Justice Research

Awards
John Irwin Distinguished Scholar Award, 2023

Division of Convict Criminology, American Society of Criminology