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Dr Maria Mellins

Associate Professor - Criminology and Sociology

Dr Maria Mellins

About Research

Email: maria.mellins@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4194

Biography

Maria is the Course Lead for the BSc Criminology and Sociology degree. The modules she delivers include Crime and the Media; Bodies, Gender and Sexuality; Psychology of Crime; Stalking and Abuse: Campaigns and Advocacy, and the Dissertation.

In terms of research, Maria is currently researching and writing about stalking and coercive control. Her chapter ‘Alice Ruggles: Stalking, the Media and Raising Public Awareness,’ features in her textbook Critiquing Violent Crime in the Media (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), edited by Maria Mellins and Sarah Moore. This research presents the need to raise public awareness of stalking, particularly amongst young people. Maria is also a Trustee for the Alice Ruggles Trust, and has developed a suite of Ofqual accredited qualifications that focus on Stalking Awareness for Education Environments (SAfEE).

Maria is an Independent Stalking Advocacy Caseworker (ISAC) trained by Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service. This underpins her undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the areas of gender-based violence, stalking, homicide prevention, and the representation of these crimes in the media. Her research podcast, Murder and Society covers issues concerning the representation of female homicide victims in the press, victim-blaming, and ‘cautionary tales’ in Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault (DFSA) cases.

Previously, Maria has written a number of sociological monographs, research papers and articles, including her book, Vampire Culture (Bloomsbury, 2013), which is a non-fiction book that draws on her PhD in the area of subcultures: media, gender and crime.

Maria is supervising PhD students in the areas of crime, media, cautionary tales and gender.

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

Selected Publications and Monographs

 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
  • Maria provided a special interview on Stalking, the Media and Advocacy for Criminology Corner Podcast by Craig Barlow (2020)
  • 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 BBC Radio Cornwall. Returning Eden book release. Tiffany Truscott. 3rd March. 2016. 3pm
  • Interviewed on television by BBC World News 31st October 2013
  • Interviewed on radio shows such as BBC London; Sept 2013
  • Maria’s book Vampire Culture was featured as an article in Bizarre Magazine, Time Out and Local Guardian October 2013

 Recent Conferences, Talks and Events

  • 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.

Media enquiries

For media enquiries, please contact our Press Office Team by emailling press.office@stmarys.ac.uk.