William Henry Timothy Newburn (born 4 July 1959) is an academic, specialising in criminology

Criminology

Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...

 and policing. He was president of the British Society of Criminology

British Society of Criminology

British Society of Criminology is an international organization aims to further the interests and knowledge of both academic and professional people who engaged in any aspect of teaching, research or public education about crime, criminal behaviour and criminal justice systems in the United Kingdom...

 from 2005-2008, director of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology from 2003-2008 and is currently head of the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. From 1997, he was Director of the Public Policy Research Unit at Goldsmiths College

Goldsmiths College

Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...

 and has previously worked at the Policy Studies Institute

Policy Studies Institute

The Policy Studies Institute is a British think-tank. It was formed in 1978 through the merger of the former Centre for the Study of Social Policy and Political and Economic Planning. Since 1998 it has been an independent subsidiary of the University of Westminster...

, the National Institute for Social Work

National Institute for Social Work

The National Institute for Social Work was a provider of services aimed at achieving excellence in practice and management in social work and social care in the United Kingdom. It was set up in 1961, following the proposals in the report of the Ministry of Health Working Party on Social Workers in...

, the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 and Leicester University.

He has published widely on crime and the police, his publications include Criminology (2007) and the Handbook of Policing (2008). He has also written for The Independent

The Independent

The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

.