Dr Victoria Cooper

Professional biography

My research focuses on homelessness in relation to: housing, hostels, the criminal justice system, community punishment, geographical displacement and evictions. I am interested in how society contains and manages homeless groups through these various institutions. Specifically, I am interested in the relationship between the evictions, homelessness and housing markets. I have also studied the relationship between homelessness and mortality, with a critical focus on the lack of meaningful intervention to such an extraordinary phenomenon. I have led on research projects commissioned by homeless charities and local authorities. I am currently leading on an Open Societal Challenges project with Tai Pawb housing justice organisation in Wales, critially exploring experiences of decarbonising housing for disadvantaged households in private and social rented housing in Wales. 

Publications

Cooper V. and McCulloch, D. (2023) 'Mystification, Violence and Women's Homelessness', in D.G Scott and J.Sim (eds.) Demystifyng Power, Crime and Social Harm: The work and legacy of Steven Box. Critical Criminological Perspectives. Cham. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.407-429. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46213-9_16

Cooper V. and McCulloch, D. (2023) Homelessness and Mortality: an extraordinary and unextraordinary phenomenon?, Mortality  1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2023.2176214

Cooper, V. and Mansfield, M. (2020) 'Marketisation of women’s organisations in the criminal justice sector', in K. Albertson, M. Corcoran, M.Phillips and J. Phillips (eds.) Marketisation and Privatisation in Criminal Justice. Policy Press, pp. 203-220,​

Cooper, V. (2019) Book Review: Personalizing the State: The Anthropology of Law, Politics and Welfare in Austerity Britain, by Insa Lee Koch.Theoretical Criminology, https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480619850696

Cooper, V. and Whyte, D. (2018) Grenfell, Austerity and Institutional Violence, Sociological Research Online, https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780418800066

Cooper, V. and Whyte, D. (2017) (eds.) The Violence of Austerity. Pluto Press

Mansfield, M. and Cooper, V. (2017) 'The Failure to Protect Women in the Criminal Justice System', in V. Cooper, and D. Whyte (eds.) The Violence of Austerity. Pluto press. pp.188-194

Paton, K. and Cooper, V.  (2017) 'Domicide, Eviction and Repossession', in V. Cooper, and D. Whyte (eds.) The Violence of Austerity. Pluto press, pp. 164-170

Cooper, V. and Paton, K. (2017) 'The new urban frontier of everyday evictions: Contemporary state practices of revanchism', in  A. Albet, N. Benach (eds.) Gentrification as a Global Strategy Neil Smith and Beyond. Taylor & Francis. pp.142-151

Cooper, V. (2017) 'No Fixed Abode: The Continuum of Policing and Incarcerating the Homeless' Policing, Vol 11 (1): 29-38.

Paton, K. and Cooper, V. (2016) 'It’s the state, stupid: 21st Century gentrification and state-led evictions, Sociological Research Online, 21 (3), 9

Cooper, V. (2016) '‘It’s all considered to be unacceptable behaviour’: Criminal justice practitioners’ experience of statutory housing duty for (ex)offenders'' Probation Journal Vol 63 (4): 433–451

Cooper, V. (2016) ‘Homelessness and Victimisation’ in K.Corteen, S. Morley, P. Taylor and J. Tunrer (eds.) A companion to crime, harm and victimisation. Policy Press, pp.95-97

Cooper, V. (2016) ‘Austerity, Harm and Victimisation’, in K.Corteen, S. Morley, P. Taylor and J. Tunrer (eds.) A companion to crime, harm and victimisation. Policy Press, pp. 11-14

Cooper, V. (2014) ‘Gendered Geographies of Punishment’ in V.Canning (ed) Sites of Confinement, European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control.

Cooper, V. and Sim, J. (2013) ‘Punishing the Detritus and the Damned, in Why Prison?’ In D. Scott (ed.) Why Prison?,Cambridge University Press, pp 189-210

Barton, A. and Cooper, V. (2012) ‘Hostels for Women and Community for Women: The ‘Semi-Penal’ Paradox’ in M. Malloch and G.McIvor (eds.) Women Punishment and Social Justice: Human Rights and Penal Practices. Routledge, pp.136-152

Cooper, V. (2010) ‘Cultivating the Business Researcher: A Biographical Account of Postgraduate Educational Research Training’ in Imrie, R and Allen, C (eds.) The Knowledge Business, London: Sage.

McKee, K and Cooper, V (2009) ‘The Paradox of Tenant Empowerment: Regulatory and Liberatory Possibilities’, Housing Theory and Society, Vol. 25, no. 2: 132 -146.

Op-eds

Cooper, V. (2015) Austerity as Organised and Bureaucratised Violence, submitted in Open Democracy Available online at https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/vickie-cooper/austerity-as-bureaucratized-and-organized-violence

Cooper, V. and Paton, K. (2015) Tenants in Danger: The Rise of Eviction Watches in Open Democracy, April 17th Available online at https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/kirsteen-paton-vickie-cooper/tenants-in-danger-rise-of-eviction-watches.

Cooper, V. (2015) ‘Bricks and Mortality: State Violence and Housing Social Policy’, Criminal Justice Matters, Issue 98.

Cooper, V and Mooney, G. (2015) Academics Against Poverty Audit Manifesto, Available online at: http://ukpovertyaudit.org/

Cooper, V. (2014) ‘Social Housing not Social Cleansing’, Red Pepper Magazine Aug/Sept Issue 197.

Book Reviews 

Cooper, V. (2014) The Ashgate Research Companion to Moral Panics by C. Krinsky (ed.) Reviewed in Youth Justice, Vol 14 (1): 103-105.

Cooper, V. (2011) Media and Society: Critical Perspectives by G. Burton, 2nd Edition, Reviewed in Youth Justice, Vol 11 (2): 191-192.

Cooper, V. (2011) Hard Lives, Mean Streets: Violence in the Lives of Homeless Women by L.J. Jasinski, K.J. Wesley, D.J. Wright, and E.E. Mustaine Reviewed in British Journal of Criminology, Vol 51(1): 229-232.

Research Reports and Briefings

Cooper, V. (2014) Rehousing Ex-prisoners in Merseyside, Liverpool: Liverpool John Moores University.

Cooper, V. (2013) No Fixed Abode: the implications for homeless people in the criminal justice system, London: Howard League for Penal Reform. 

Cooper, V. (2012) Resettlement and Floating Support in the Criminal Justice System, London: St Mungo’s.