Fergus McNeill is Professor of Criminology and Social Work at the University of Glasgow where he works in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. He is also the Chair of the Board of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

 

Prior to becoming an academic in 1998, Fergus worked for a decade in residential drug rehabilitation and as a criminal justice social worker. Since then, his teaching and his many research projects and publications have examined institutions, cultures and practices of punishment, rehabilitation and reintegration. In 2021, his book ‘Pervasive Punishment: Making sense of mass supervision’ was awarded the European Society of Criminology's Book Prize.

 

Fergus’s engagement with creative methods of research over the last decade or so has also had the unanticipated effect of enabling him to become an award-winning singer-songwriter.