Dr Alice Gerlach

Deputy Head for Education and Student Experience

School of Law and Social Sciences

Role

Dr Gerlach is a lecturer in Criminology, in the School of Law and Social Sciences. She completed her DPhil (phd) at the Centre for Criminology, Oxford University, in 2018.

Teaching and supervision

Modules taught

Crime in Theory and Practice
Globalisation and Crime

Research

Alice conducts research in the criminology sub-field of Border Criminologies, which is the intersection of immigration control and criminal justice. Her collaboratively funded ESRC and HMIP DPhil explored the experiences of women who had spent time in immigration detention in the UK. She used the concept of dignity to help explain the pains of immigration detention as described by the women who participated in the study. Alice is one of few academic researchers to have been given full access to an immigration removal centre to conduct this research. Alongside this access, she also visited women in the UK community who had been released from detention and visited Jamaica to speak with women who had been removed to this country after their incarceration.

Research group membership

Alice is a member of Border Criminologies, which is a global research group bringing together academics, practitioners and people who have experienced border control.

Research projects

Alice collaborates with Professor Mary Bosworth (Oxford University) on the Measure of Quality of Life in Detention (MQLD), which is a survey conducted within immigration removal centres to assess the living conditions within these spaces.

Projects as Principal Investigator, or Lead Academic if project is led by another Institution

Measuring Distress in Immigration Detention in the UK (01/01/2020 - 31/12/2023), funded by: British Academy, funding amount received by Brookes: £9,966

Publications

Book chapters

Gerlach A, 'Helping Women Prepare for Removal: The Case of Jamaica' in Khosravi S (ed.), After Deportation: Global Ethics, Palgrave Macmillan (2018)

ISBN: 9783319572666 eISBN: 9783319572673
Abstract Published here
Gerlach A, 'Researching vulnerable women: Sharing distress and the risk of secondary and vicarious trauma' in Fili A, Jahnsen S, Powell R (ed.), Criminal justice research in an era of mass mobility, Routledge (2018)

ISBN: 9781138284128 eISBN: 9781315269771

Other publications

Book Chapters

Gerlach, A. (2018) Helping women prepare for removal: The case of Jamaica in After Deportation: Ethnographic Perspectives, edited by Shahram Khosravi. London: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-3-319-57267-3

Gerlach, A. (2018) Researching vulnerable women: sharing distress and the risk of vicarious trauma in Criminal Justice Research in an Era of Mass Mobility, edited by Andriani Fili, Synnove Johansen and Rebecca Powell. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN: 978-1138284128

Reports and briefing papers

Gerlach, A (2018) Women in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre. Research Brief prepared for the Shadow Home Secretary, UK Parliament.

Bosworth, M., and Gerlach, A (2017) Quality of Life in Detention: Results from MQLD questionnaire data collected in IRC Heathrow (Harmondsworth), July 4 – 6, 2017. Oxford Centre for Criminology: Border Criminologies

Gerlach, A. (2016) The Resettlement of Women after Forced Removal to Jamaica. Research Brief prepared for the British High Commission, Jamaica.

Gerlach, A and M., Bosworth (2016) Quality of Life in Detention: Results from MQLD questionnaire data collected in IRC Dungavel House, August 31 – September 2, 2016. Oxford Centre for Criminology: Border Criminologies

Bosworth, M., Gerlach, A., and D. Aitken. (2016) Understanding Staff Culture in IRC Heathrow. Oxford Centre for Criminology: Border Criminologies

Gerlach, A and M., Bosworth (2016) Quality of Life in Detention: Results from MQLD questionnaire data collected in IRC Yarl’s Wood, June 21 – 23, 2016. Oxford Centre for Criminology: Border Criminologies

Bosworth, M and A. Gerlach. (2016) Quality of Life in Detention: Results from pilot revised MQLD questionnaire data collected in IRC Campsfield House, March 22 – 23, 2016. Oxford Centre for Criminology: Border Criminologies

Campos, C., Dent, A., Fry, R., Reid (Gerlach), A. (2010) Impact of the recession: Office for National Statistics

Reid (Gerlach), A & Miller, C (2010) Regional characteristics of foreign-born people living in the United Kingdom: Office for National Statistics

Thematic research contributions

HM Inspectorate of Prisons, HM Inspectorate of Probation and Ofsted (2014) Resettlement provision for adult offenders: accommodation and education, training and employment.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons & Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (2012) The effectiveness and impact of immigration detention casework: A Joint thematic review by HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. United Kingdom: HMIP

HM Inspectorate of Probation, HMCPSI, HM Inspectorate of Prisons (2012) Facing up to offending: Use of restorative justice in the criminal justice. United Kingdom: HMIP

Book reviews

Gerlach, A. (2016) Book Review: The Routledge Handbook on Crime and International Migration edited by Sharon Pickering and Julie Ham (Routledge, 2014).

Further details

Areas of expertise

Alice has prior experience in the criminal justice detention estate as a researcher for HM Inspectorate for Prisons (HMIP), and further practical research experience as a researcher for the Office for National Statistics (ONS). She has professional expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methods from these roles.

Blog posts

Gerlach, A. (2017) The Pains of Detention: Exploring the Concepts of Justice, Legitimacy and Dignity. Border Criminologies Immigration Detention Blog Series.

Gerlach, A. (2017) Research in detention centres: The psychological challenges. Social Science Division Blog, Oxford University.

Gerlach, A. (2017) Current DPhil: Alice Gerlach.

Gerlach, A. (2016) Alice Gerlach: Research Update.

Gerlach, A. (2015) From the Field: Safety in Fieldwork for the Researcher and the Participants.

Gerlach, A (2014) Education in Immigration Detention.

Gerlach, A. (2014) Thinking about Dignity and Immigration Detention.

Gerlach, A. (2013) Developing European Standards of Detention.