Dr Sasha Jesperson

Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery

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Sasha Jesperson is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery at St Mary’s University Twickenham. Before coming to St Mary’s, Sasha was leading research on organised crime at the Royal United Services Institute, working closely with government departments to ensure that research is useful for strengthening policymaking on organised crime. Her research background is on organised crime and particularly the role of development is preventing and responding to criminal activity.

Sasha completed her PhD at the London School of Economics. Her research examined international initiatives to address organised crime through peace building missions under the framework of the security-development nexus, comparing examples from Sierra Leone and Bosnia. Sasha also completed an MSc in Human Rights at the London School of Economics and worked for Amnesty International for three years, primarily focusing on human rights in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

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Research

Books

• Rethinking the Security-Development Nexus: Organised crime in post-conflict states, Routledge, 2016.https://www.routledge.com/Rethinking-the-Security-Development-Nexus-Organised-Crime-in-Post-Conflict/Jesperson/p/book/9781138200081
• Conflict, Violent Extremism and Development: New Actors, New Responses, co-authored with Andrew Glazzard, Tom Maguire and Emily Winterbotham, Palgrave Pivot 2017. http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319514833
• The War on Crime: Assessing Militarised Responses to Transnational Organised Crime, edited volume co-edited with Tuesday Reitano, Palgrave Macmillan. September 2017. http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783319575643 

Book chapters

• ‘Filling Governance and Development Vacuums: A Role for Development Actors or Criminal Groups?’ in Corrupt Places: The Illicit in the Governance and Development of Cities, Regions and Networks, Tim Hall and Ray Hudson (eds), Routledge (forthcoming – October 2017). https://www.amazon.com/Illicit-Regional-Governance-Development-Corrupt/dp/1138230642
• Kept at Bay: Corruption and Crime in Sierra Leone, Handbook on Organised Crime, Politics and Governance, Felia Allum and Stan Gilmour (eds), Edward Elgar (forthcoming).

Journal articles

• Islamist Violent Extremism: A New Form of Conflict or Business as Usual?,co-authored with Andrew Glazzard, Tom Maguire and Emily Winterbotham, Stability: International Journal of Security and Development (forthcoming). http://research.stmarys.ac.uk/1494/
• Development Engagement with Organised Crime: A Necessary Shift or Further Securitisation? Conflict, Security and Development, 2015, 15(1), 23-50. doi: 10.1080/14678802.2014.978182. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14678802.2014.978182?journalCode=ccsd20
• Bridging the Research and Policy Divide on Organised Crime, European Review of Organised Crime, 2015, 2(1), 147-157. http://sgocnet.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Jesperson_9_147-157.pdf

Reports and policy briefings

• Conflict obscuring Crime in Nigeria, UN University Policy Report, 21 April 2017. https://cpr.unu.edu/conflict-obscurity-criminality-in-nigeria.html
• Enhancing Integration: The New Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, RUSI Newsbrief, 1 May 2015. https://rusi.org/publication/newsbrief/enhancing-integration-new-conflict-stability-and-security-fund
• From Boko Haram to Ansaru: The Evolution of Nigerian Jihad, co-authored with Raffaello Pantucci, RUSI Occasional Paper, 30 April 2015. https://rusi.org/publication/occasional-papers/boko-haram-ansaru-evolution-nigerian-jihad
• Fending for Themselves: Al-Qaida Affiliates and the Crime-Terror Nexus, co-authored with Clare Ellis, RUSI Newsbrief, 26 January 2015. https://rusi.org/publication/newsbrief/fending-themselves-al-qaida-affiliates-and-crime–terror-nexus