Steven is originally from South East Durham and was the first in his family to attend university. He completed his LLB and LLM in London (KCL) before moving to Warwick for his PhD, where he was also a Graduate Teaching Assistant. His first post was as a lecturer at Birmingham before moving to the University of Leicester, where he was promoted to Senior Lecturer. He returned to Birmingham in January 2021.

Steven was formerly a member of Leicestershire’s Office of Police and Crime Commissioner’s Ethics, Integrity and Complaints Committee.

Since completing his PhD on the allocation decision in magistrates’ courts, Steven has continued to engage in theoretically informed empirical socio-legal research. He has, as part of a research team, examined the processing of licensing applications, roads policing, and the trials of protestors.

His current research examines the criminal justice process’ response to protest. While much has been written on the policing of protest, comparatively little is known about what happens to those prosecuted in the courts. To remedy this, Steven is part of an interdisciplinary team examining the treatment of protestors in the courts. This has included the observation of a number of high profile trials, such as the trials of the Colston 4 and Stansted 15, as well as trials of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, Just Stop Oil, and Palestine Action activists.