Ben Bowling

Benjamin Bowling is Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at King's College London, an author and an honorary psychotherapist.

After working at the Home Office Research Unit Bowling moved to the City University of New York and taught at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice before returning to Britain where he became a lecturer in criminology at the University of Cambridge in 1996.

Bowling's studies of Violent Racism (Oxford University Press 1998) and Racism, Crime and Justice (with Coretta Phillips, Longman 2002) are the standard works on these subjects.

He is a recipient of the Radzinowicz Memorial Prize awarded for the best article in the British Journal of Criminology in 1999.

Bowling was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2022.

Bowling is the son of the artists Frank Bowling and Claire Spencer.

He is of Guyanese descent through his father.

He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Manchester Metropolitan University and a PhD from the London School of Economics.

He has a Master of Science degree in Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy from Birkbeck College.

He joined King's as a lecturer in law in 1999 and has been a visiting professor at the University of the West Indies, at Monash University and at the East China University of Political Science and Law.

Bowling's research examines practical, political and legal problems in policing and the connections between local and global police power.

His work exploring central themes of fairness, effectiveness and accountability has been published in three books:

Bowling submitted evidence to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in 1999 and has been a specialist adviser to the House of Commons, Home Affairs Committee, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the European Commission, Interpol and the United Nations.

He is a founding member of StopWatch, a charity that works to inform the public about the police's use of Stop and Search powers in the UK and to promote fair, effective and accountable policing.

Bowling has appeared in the media commenting on stop and search and criminal justice.

Bowling is an honorary psychotherapist with the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

He has an MSc in Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy from Birkbeck College and is a member of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Bowling is a recipient of the Radzinowicz Memorial Prize awarded for the best article in the British Journal of Criminology in 1999.

He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2005 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2022.

Bowling's publications include:

Bowling is the frontman of the British blues band Doc Bowling and his Blues Professors.

in 2012 Bowling published (with James Sheptycki) a co-edited four-volume major work for SAGE Publishing on Global Policing and Transnational Law Enforcement.

He has published numerous articles in the Modern Law Review, Criminal Law Review, Policing and Society and Theoretical Criminology.