About
Research
Email: maria.mellins@stmarys.ac.uk
Biography
Maria is a Professor in Criminology and Community Safety at St Mary’s University.
Maria is an Independent Stalking Advocacy Caseworker (ISAC) trained by Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service, she is also a Sexual Violence Liaison Officer (SVLO) and has also helped to establish and run the multi-agency Richmond upon Thames Domestic Abuse and Stalking Drop-In Service.
Supported by colleagues (internally at St Mary’s and externally), Maria leads UNISafe at St Mary’s, a service that offers free, friendly support, advice, and information on matters related to crime and community safety. The UNISafe Partnership comprises of colleagues from St Mary’s, the Metropolitan Police Service, Richmond and Wandsworth Borough Council, victim support charities and legal advisers. UNISafe is now piloting in wider UK universities and aims to:
- Carry out vital prevention work on campus and within our local community.
- Work in collaboration with Student Services, Registry, the Student Union and other agencies to provide trauma-informed support to victim-survivors of crime.
- Support investigation work and misconduct panels.
- Learn and contribute to knowledge through research, training, and working collaboratively with our partners.
Maria is currently researching stalking, coercive control and online abuse and exploitation. Her textbook Young People, Stalking and Domestic Abuse (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) was co-edited with Rachael Wheatley and Caroline Flowers in partnership with the Alice Ruggles Trust. This research presents the need to raise public awareness of stalking, particularly amongst young people.
Maria has also worked with the Alice Ruggles Trust and delivered stalking awareness training to the criminal justice system, including the development of an e-learning resource. She has a keen focus on raising awareness of stalking and domestic abuse within education environments. Maria has developed a suite of Ofqual accredited qualifications that focus on Stalking Awareness for Education Environments (SAfEE) and the CPD accredited course Recognising Stalking; Relationship Abuse and Coercive Control.
Previously, Maria has written a number of sociological monographs, research papers, and articles and is supervising PhD students in the areas of crime, stalking, domestic abuse, and media representation.
Maria is the Safety theme lead at the Bakhita Centre for Research on Slavery, Safety and Social Justice, she is a Trustee for the Alice Ruggles Trust and member of the Richmond Safer Neighbourhoods Board.
Research
Areas of research supervision
- Stalking
- Domestic/relationship abuse
- Young people and safety: addressing sexual violence in education environments
- Crime and media representation
Research profile
Areas of research supervision
Maria can supervise research on:
- stalking
- domestic/relationship abuse
- young people and safety: addressing sexual violence in education environments
- crime and media representation.
Selected publications and monographs
- Textbook - Young People, Stalking and Domestic Abuse. Palgrave Macmillan, edited by Maria Mellins, Rachael Wheatley and Caroline Flowers (2023).
- Book Chapter - ‘Stalking and Raising Public Awareness,’ in Critiquing Violent Crime in the Media (2021).
- Textbook - Critiquing Violent Crime in the Media, Palgrave Macmillan, edited by Maria Mellins and Sarah Moore (2021).
- Magazine Article – Stalking and The Alice Ruggles Trust, TW1&2 Magazine (2020).
- Podcast - Murder Society Podcast (2019-20) Series 1 (6 episodes) available on most podcast providers.
- Audiobook - Maria Mellins and Peter Howell, Introductions to the Monster Collection of Frankenstein,Dracula and Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, Audible, (2017).
Media and television
- Maria wrote, produced and featured in stalking awareness videos – there are three stalking awareness videos for SAfEE courses on Stalking, Coercive Control and How to Help Someone Who is At Risk of Stalking.
- The Monster Collections (Audible, 2018) Maria worked with Dr Peter Howell writing the Introduction to the Halloween editions of Dracula (Bram Stoker, 1897), Frankenstein (Mary Shelly, 1818) and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885) for Audible Publishers (an Amazon company).
- Interviewed on television by BBC World News 31st October 2013.
- Interviewed on radio shows such as BBC London; Sept 2013.
Recent conferences, talks, and events
- Keynote Speaker for Alice Ruggles Trust Conference, ‘Young People, Stalking Awareness and Domestic Abuse.’ October 2023.
- Public Lecture - Metropolitan Police Safer Streets Event - Women’s Safety, Addressing Stalking. May, 2023.
- Public Lecture - Richmond Upon Thames International Women’s Day Event that focused on stalking. March 2023.
- Public Lecture for the Alice Ruggles Trust Lecture Series: Stalking, Abuse and Safety of Young People. Maria’s lecture was entitled ‘Addressing stalking and abuse in education: the SAfEE qualifications’.
- Attendance – Suzy Lamplugh Trust Conference ‘Unmasking Stalking’ for National Stalking Awareness Week.
- Attendance - Westminster Forum’s ‘Next steps for addressing sexual misconduct in Higher Education conference’ in April 2021.
- Maria chaired two panels at The Alice Ruggles Trust Conference that focused on Stalking Amongst Young People.
- Delivered a paper at the Festival of Research – St Mary’s University. True Crime and Cautionary Tales.