Laura Bui is Lecturer in Criminology and a chartered psychologist, with an educational background in criminology and psychology. She holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge; M.A. from Boston University; and B.A. from the University of California, Irvine. Her work is centred around three areas of research: young people and offending, social narratives on crime and criminality, and violence prevention. With these, she is interested in an international and comparative approach that often draws on the psychological.
Bui's initial interest in these research areas came from having taken courses as an undergraduate student on Asian-American psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and the social ecology of street gangs. Previous work has examined the influence of immigration, ethnicity, and acculturation on aggressive behaviour and attitudes in the US and UK. Prior to that, her research compared youth violence between the US and Japan and focused on issues in cross-cultural study and comparability. It was elaborated on in her 2019 co-authored book, Crime in Japan: A psychological perspective, published by Palgrave Macmillan. The book challenges and refines the accepted narrative of low crime Japan by using psychology to illuminate seven explanations for crime in Japan.
Before joining the University of Manchester, she was Programme Lead and Lecturer in Criminology at Liverpool Hope University; and prior to full-time lectureship, she contributed to research projects in higher education and third-sector organisations in the US and UK, with the most recent role being Postdoctoral Researcher at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London. There, she worked on statistical analyses and co-authored the NIHR-funded report, Improving risk management in mental health services: A multi-methods approach. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge and, soon to be, the University of Pennsylvania (postponed).
Teaching
Courses I lead or contribute substantially on relate to psychology and crime, criminological research methods, and quantitative research methods using R. Examples of courses taught: Modelling Criminological Data (UG); Personality Disorder and Crime (UG); and Evaluating Policy and Practice (PGT).
Ph.D. Applicants
Prospective students who are considering applying for a Ph.D. under my supervision should contact me by email with their CV and a draft research proposal before submitting an application. I mainly supervise doctoral theses using a quantitative or mixed methods approach in any of my research areas.