Criminologists join growing Marjon department

Released: 23.10.18

Dr Andrew Whittington and Stacey Knowles have joined Plymouth Marjon University as part of the growing criminology department.

Dr Whittington, who has a background in forensic entomology, joins Marjon as a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and will also lecture on the Forensic Criminology degree.

Stacey previously worked with Dr Whittington at Bournemouth University and has also worked as a Crime Scene Examiner for the Met Police. She will be teaching the Forensic Photography module of the Criminology course as a visiting lecturer.

The pair started working at Marjon this academic year and Dr Whittington is pleased to be joining a University with such a personal teaching style.

“I wanted to come and teach at Marjon because it’s small. It made sense to me to get smaller teaching groups because the one bug-bear I’ve had at previous Universities was the large teaching groups,” said Dr Whittington.

“Having a small class size means we can give students much more attention. On top of that we can give them hands-on experience with equipment. In large groups of students sometimes they’re told about a piece of equipment and what it’s used for. In small groups we can actually get students to use the piece of equipment and get practical experience on it. And that’s quite important when you get through to industry.”

Dr Whittington’s background is in taxonomy (naming and identifying species) and he previously worked on a self-employed basis as a forensic entomologist in relation to criminal investigations.

Stacey graduated from Bournemouth University in Forensic and Crime Scene Science in 2008 before working for the Met Police in London as a Crime Scene Examiner. She stayed there for eight years before leaving to return to Bournemouth University as a Demonstrator in Analytical and Forensic Science. Stacey joins Marjon as a Visiting Lecturer, focussing on crime scene photography.

“I’ve got a huge passion for teaching the subject. When you’ve been there, seen it, done it, you then want to share your experience and passion with the future generation,” said Stacey.

“As a student I always knew that I wanted to graduate from University, get experience in the field and then ultimately come back and teach. To be given the opportunity to come here and do that is great and I’m really enjoying it.”

Stacey’s experience as a Crime Scene Examiner means not only do students get an expert to guide them through their photography module, but they also get an expert in handling and investigating a crime scene. In one of Stacey’s early sessions with the students she led a photography workshop in Marjon’s Crime Scene House, where students got a chance to investigate and photograph a crime scene set up by Dr Whittington and Linda Wilday.

Stacey continued: “I will be teaching students about not just taking photos but their overall approach to crime scene examination.

“I’ll be leaning on the criminology side of things so they learn how photography can help build a criminal profile. It’s also about making sure they capture everything within a crime scene accurately with correct exposure and in sharp focus. It’s not about arty photos, it’s about capturing reality and telling a story to the viewer.” 

Find out more about Criminology and Forensic Criminology at Marjon.

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