ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

Contact

• workLaw and Social Sciences
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• Melanie.Jordan@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Dr Mel Jordan studies health, illness, justice, clinical settings, healthcare, harm, medical sociology, deviance-in-health, healthcare provision, medical law and ethics, justice-in-health, social and clinical science knowledge production, social theory, inclusion/lived-experience, criminology, methodology/method, social order/disorder/harmony, and subjugation/self-sovereignty.

Dr Mel Jordan is also increasingly bringing clinical understandings on microbiology, biomedical science, virology, biosecurity, infectious diseases, infection control, hospital acquired infections, and patient management/support into their work on health and justice.

Teaching Summary

Research and teaching interests:

Medical Sociology: Health, ill-health, healthcare, and harms in clinical (often also justice) settings;

Medical sociology and anthropology (esp. historical and current custodial settings); Healthcare provision and receipt experiences and environments (esp. penal/forensic sites); The sociology of illness and healthcare (esp. regarding offenders and recidivism link); Sociology of health professions/relationships (esp. prison staff-NHS prison staff relations).

Social Science Research: Method and methodology theory plus data collection/construction discussions; Epistemology debates re. quantitative and qualitative knowledge; Research with vulnerable participants and research ethics considerations.

Criminology: Theoretical criminology; Penology philosophy and practice; Sociology of deviance and criminological theories of deviance; Victimology; Crime and social dimensions; Sociology of prisons and incarceration; Prison culture(s); Ventriloquist populism, media, politics, and the criminal justice system; Sociological research in the justice system (e.g. ethnographic work in prisons); The criminal justice system workforce; Crimes of the powerful and white collar crime; Sex crime and approaches to sexual offenders; Offending behaviours and morality; Private prisons and immigration removal centres; Female prisoners; Vulnerable prisoners (e.g. sexual offenders); Policing, probation, and community sentences; Prison abolition and recidivism approaches; Liaison and diversion away from the criminal justice system; Reducing the cycle of re-offending and related community work; Institutionalisation theory and penal settings; Historical and current prison architecture; State corporal punishment and morality; The social and health profile of offenders; Crime and mental illness; Offender health: prevention, promotion, and treatment; Prison healthcare; Personality disordered offenders and offenders with learning/intellectual disability.

Selected Publications

• MELANIE JORDAN, ED WRIGHT, AIMIE PURSER, ANDREW GRUNDY, EMMA JOYES, NICOLA WRIGHT, PAUL CRAWFORD and NICK MANNING, 2018. Journal: Sport, Education and Society.
• MIDDLETON, HUGH. and JORDAN, MELANIE., 2017. Palgrave Macmillan.
• HAMILTON, IAN S., SCHNEIDER, JUSTINE, KANE, EDDIE and JORDAN, MELANIE, 2015. BMC PSYCHIATRY. 15,
• WRIGHT, NICOLA, JORDAN, MELANIE and KANE, EDDIE, 2014. HEALTH & PLACE. 29, 179-185

• View all publications

Future Research

See full publication list for past and present health and justice research work.

Past and present PGR students and their work:

Dr Edward J. Wright

PhD title: From Rookie to Rocky? On Modernity, Identity and White Collar Boxing.

Dr Ian Hamilton

PhD Title: Employment of Prisoners with Mental Health Problems. The PhD is looking at the effectiveness of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) for offenders with mental health problems.

Dr Emma Joyes

PhD Title: Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery explored within Forensic Mental Health.

Prof. Eddie Kane

Prof. Lynn Saunders

The thesis explores the experiences and expectations of people who have been convicted of sexual offences leaving prison and their return to the community. It also explores the approaches of Offender Managers in dealing with the risks and challenges of this group of ex-offenders.

Dr Anthony Salla

PhD title: A Critical Race ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ on Non-Statutory Early Intervention Services for Young Racialised People

This research is funded by the ESRC. This study utilises Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical, methodological and analytical framework to explore the lived experience of young people, racialised as Black, in non-statutory mental health services.

Oscar O'Mara

Title of PhD project: Balancing security and rehabilitation in a prison environment ~ Theory and Practice

Supervisors: Dr Melanie Jordan and Dr Nicola Carr

This research is supported by HMPPS. It seeks to explore the balance and conflict between prison security and rehabilitation in theory and practice on the frontline of the prison service. The research will involve fieldwork in prison establishments and promote the voice of stakeholders and their experiences.

Mike Harmson

Thesis Abstract:

This thesis explores the digital and social media knowledge and training of police officers who investigate online Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) offending. The training and digital and social media knowledge of those who work within online sexual crime investigation n focused on police cybercrime investigation overall, including fraud, harassment and stalking. Findings suggest that online technology companies are now the primary responders to online CSEM offending, much younger children than previously known are at risk of sharing self-generated image content, and more children from Western backgrounds are at an increased risk of online live-stream sexual abuse. Finally,has been largely overlooked. When exploring online CSEM offending, current and existing literature has ofte online CSEM offenders are now offending across all spectrums of child sexual abuse, including, sexualised grooming, possession of indecent images, physical contact offending and online sexualised chat.

Stuart Carroll

PhD candidate in Social Policy focusing on public health and COVID-19 pandemic. Research title = Science and The State: The Role of Politics and Policy in the Procurement of Covid-19 Vaccines in the Coronavirus Pandemic

Sara Hyde

Sara Hyde worked in and around prisons for over a decade prior to starting her PhD at Nottingham. She has a MA in Theatre from QMUL, within which she specialised in theatre in criminal justice settings. Sara's PhD explores the experiences of prison healthcare staff regarding prisoner self-harm and suicide. Her research interests are: prison health, prison staff, deaths in custody, lived experience in prison research, women in prison, arts in criminal justice settings.

Internal Examiner examples: Dr Jack Tomlin; Dr Zoe Robinson.

External Examiner examples: UCL in 2023; Surrey in 2026.

• JACK TOMLIN and MEL JORDAN, 2025. Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
• JACK TOMLIN, MEL JORDAN and KILBANE, S., ZAMORANO, M., ROMERO, A., JORDAN, M., TURNER, S., & TOMLIN, J., 2025. Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
• SAUNDERS, JORDAN and WRIGHT, 2025. Criminology & Criminal Justice.
• 2024. "Understanding the scale and nature of avoidable healthcare-associated harm for prisoners in England: protocol for a retrospective cross-sectional study" Andrew Carson-Stevens, Isobel Joy McFadzean, Thomas Purchase, Sioned Gwyn, Stuart Hellard, Kate Davies, Darren M Ashcroft, Anthony Avery, Stephen Campbell, Adrian Edwards, Sandra Flynn, Caroline Hendricks, Thomas Hewson, Saied Ibrahim, Melanie Jordan, Richard N Keers, Tim Millar, Maria Panagioti, Jane Senior, Caroline Sanders, Ellie Thompson, Florian Walter, Carl de Wet, Verity Wainwright, and Jenny Shaw. BMJ Open.
• DR JOY MCFADZEAN ET AL., PROF. ANDREW CARSON-STEVENS and DR MEL JORDAN, 2023. Patient safety in prisons: a multi-method analysis of reported incidents in England: Authors: McFadzean J, Davies K, Purchase T, Edwards A, Hellard S, Ashcroft DM, Avery A, Flynn S, Hewson T, Jordan M, Keers RN, Panagioti M, Wainwright V, Walter F, Shaw J, Carson-Stevens A. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
• RUNA LAZZARINO, NICOLA WRIGHT and MEL JORDAN, 2022. JOURNAL OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
• DR EMMA JOYES and DR MEL JORDAN, 2022. Frontiers Psychiatry.
• JACK TOMLIN, SARAH KILBANE, MEL JORDAN and SHELLEY TURNER, 2022. Prospero.
• JACK TOMLIN and MEL JORDAN, 2021. Strength- and recovery-based approaches in forensic mental health in late modernity: Increasingly incorporating a human rights angle? Social Theory & Health. (In Press.)
• NICOLA WRIGHT, MEL JORDAN and RUNA LAZZARINO, 2021. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 67(8), 1026-1034
• EMMA JOYES, MEL JORDAN, GARY WINSHIP and PAUL CRAWFORD, 2021. Inpatient institutional care: The forced social environment: "Keywords: recovery, social connectedness, interpersonal wellbeing, forensic mental health, inpatient secure care, ethnography, holistic wellbeing, therapeutic communities." Frontiers.
• MELANIE JORDAN, EDWARD J. WRIGHT and AIMIE PURSER, 2020. Capoeira. In: PAUL CRAWFORD, ed., The Routledge Companion To Health Humanities: Capoeira Routledge. 377-382
• NICOLA WRIGHT and HADZIOSMANOVIC, EMINA; DANG, MINH; BALES, KEVIN; BROOKES, CAROLINE; JORDAN, MELANIE; SLADE, MIKE; LIVED EXPERIENCE RESEARCH ADVISORY BOARD, 2020. Mental Health Recovery for Survivors of Modern Slavery: Grounded Theory ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ Protocol BMJ Open. 10, e038583
• JEWKES, YVONNE, JORDAN, MELANIE, WRIGHT, SERENA and BENDELOW, GILLIAN, 2019. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH. 16(20),
• MELANIE JORDAN, ED WRIGHT, AIMIE PURSER, ANDREW GRUNDY, EMMA JOYES, NICOLA WRIGHT, PAUL CRAWFORD and NICK MANNING, 2018. Journal: Sport, Education and Society.
• NICOLA WRIGHT, MELANIE JORDAN and ET AL., 2018.
• MIDDLETON, HUGH. and JORDAN, MELANIE., 2017. Palgrave Macmillan.
• HAMILTON, IAN S., SCHNEIDER, JUSTINE, KANE, EDDIE and JORDAN, MELANIE, 2015. BMC PSYCHIATRY. 15,
• JORDAN, MELANIE, ROWLEY, EMMA, MORRISS, RICHARD and MANNING, NICK, 2015. HEALTH EXPECTATIONS. 18(6), 2693-2703
• M. JORDAN, 2014. In: TAYLOR, CORTEEN, & MORLEY, ed., Companion to Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Risk Policy Press.
• WRIGHT, NICOLA, JORDAN, MELANIE and KANE, EDDIE, 2014. HEALTH & PLACE. 29, 179-185
• MCMURRAN, M, BEELEY, C, KANE, E and JORDAN, M, 2013. Her Majesty’s Youth Offender Institution, Emerging Personality Disorder Needs Assessment Centre for Health and Justice, Institute of Mental Health.
• KANE, E, BEELEY, C and JORDAN, M, 2013. Mental Health Needs Assessment of HMYOI X, HMP X, and HMP X - for NHS England Centre for Health and Justice, Institute of Mental Health.
• M. JORDAN, 2012. Patients’/prisoners’ perspectives regarding the National Health Service mental healthcare provided in one Her Majesty’s Prison Service establishment Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology. 23(5), 722–739
• M. JORDAN, 2012. Method and methodological reflections concerning the conduct of interviews with NHS mental healthcare patients/prisoners in HM Prison Service, UK Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice. 7(4), 161–169
• JORDAN, M, 2012.
• KANE, E, JORDAN, M and BEELEY, C, 2012. Department of Health, Health and Criminal Justice Transition Programme, National Liaison and Diversion Development Network, Liaison and Diversion: Narrative Review of the Literature Centre for Health and Justice, Institute of Mental Health.
• M. JORDAN, 2011. The prison setting as a place of enforced residence, its mental health effects, and the mental healthcare implications Health & Place. 17(5), 1061–1066
• M. JORDAN, 2011. Therapeutic Relationships with Offenders: An Introduction to the Psychodynamics of Forensic Mental Health Nursing British Journal of Forensic Practice Book Review. 13(3), 213–214
• M. JORDAN, 2010. Embracing the notion that context is crucial in prison mental health care The British Journal of Forensic Practice. 12(4), 26–35
• M. JORDAN, 2010. What are you reading? Cervantes's Don Quixote Times Higher Education, Book Review.