Research Assistant - N8 Policing Research Project

Are you an experienced researcher? The School of Law is seeking to appoint a Research Assistant to join an N8 Policing Research Project-funded project: ‘Preventing suicides on release from police custody: risk factors, contextual characteristics, policy, practice and future research’. This project focuses on an urgent issue: suicides on release from police custody, which have remained at 55-65 per year for the last decade.

The aim is to systematically the pathways associated with post-custody suicides. This is through an analysis of an existing set of NPCC-held data on post-custody suicides , which combines data collected by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) with data from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. This will be supplemented by publicly available Coroner’s Inquest information for all 426 individuals who are named in it.

The academic lead is Prof. Layla Skinns (University of Sheffield) and the wider team includes:
Professor Catherine Robinson (University of Manchester) and Dr Iain McKinnon (Newcastle University). The appointed research assistant will also be part of the wider research community at the University of Sheffield (see “What we offer” below).

The research assistant will collect and analyse information about all the cases in the NPCC-held data, using Coroner’s Inquests and related public records e.g., verdicts, Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports and media coverage. This analysis will include information, such as on whether an inquest took place, its outcome, and other key categorical details. For a purposively selected subset of cases, they will also gather more in-depth data.

They will also attend meetings with the research team and police stakeholders, present at and attend relevant events and co‑author outputs. Throughout the post, they will be supported in the development of their research skills and independence for the success of their future career.

• We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more)
• a generous pensions scheme
• flexible working opportunities
• a commitment to your development and wellbeing
• a wide range of retail discounts
• and much more

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world‑class university.

Find out more at  and join us to become part of something special.

We are committed to exploring flexible working opportunities which benefit the individual and University.

We build teams of people from different heritages and lifestyles from across the world, whose talent and contributions complement each other to greatest effect. We believe diversity in all its forms delivers greater impact through research, teaching and student experience.