Dr Katherine Doolin (Kate) joined Birmingham Law School as a Lecturer in 2003 having previously taught at the University of Kent and University of Waikato, New Zealand. While at the University of Kent she also worked as a researcher on Home Office and Youth Justice Board funded evaluations of restorative justice schemes in England and Wales. Her research interests are in Restorative Justice, Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, and Youth Justice. She teaches on the Criminology, Criminal Law, and Juvenile Justice LLB modules, the Criminal Law CPE module and the Restorative Justice LLM module. She was joint recipient of the Head of School’s Teaching Excellence Award for 2006-2007.

Dr Doolin is the Director of the Institute of Judicial Administration. She is also Head of Student Development and Support for the Law School..

Dr Doolin graduated from the University of Waikato, New Zealand, with a First Class Honours in Law, before being admitted as Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand. She has a PhD from the University of Kent, which examined tensions within the concept of restorative justice and analysed the use of restorative justice as a response to youth offending in England and Wales, and New Zealand.

Dr Doolin has recently been awarded British Academy funding to undertake research into the use of restorative justice in the criminal justice process in Belgium. This is part of a larger research project, which examines the application of restorative justice in a civil law system in contrast to its application in selected common law jurisdictions.  
Recent publications include:

• ‘Translating Restorative Justice Into Practice: Lessons From New Zealand’s Family Group Conferencing Approach To Youth Offending’ (2008) 4(1) International Journal of Restorative Justice 1-24.
• ‘Critical Perspectives of Restorative Justice Measures for Young Offenders in the Blair World’ in G. Oduntan (ed), Human Rights and Human Wrongs: Critical Perspectives of Law in the Bush/Blair World (Routledge-Cavendish, 2008) (forthcoming).
• ‘But What Does It Mean? Seeking Definitional Clarity in Restorative Justice’ (2007) 71(5) Journal of Criminal Law 427-440.
•  ‘Youth Justice’ in Uglow, S with Dickson, L, Cheney, D and Doolin, K Criminal Justice (Sweet & Maxwell, 2nd ed, 2002) 425-446.
• ‘HM Prison Service Annual Report’ in Leech, M and Cheney, D (eds) The Prisons Handbook 2002 (Waterside Press, 6th ed, 2002) 588.
• ‘Prisons Ombudsman Annual Report’ in Leech, M and Cheney, D (eds) The Prisons Handbook 2002 (Waterside Press, 6th ed, 2002) 589.
• (co-author) An Exploratory Evaluation of Restorative Justice Schemes Crime Reduction Research Series Paper 9 (Home Office, 2001).
• ‘Lamb, S The Trouble with Blame: Victims, Perpetrators, and Responsibility’ (2001) 9(2) Feminist Legal Studies 195 (Book Review).