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Role:
Department staff:
Collaborations:
- Dr Michael Woodiwiss - Interdisciplinary research into organized crime and its control (History+Law)
Research staff:
- Conceptualisation of Organized Crime and its Control
- Financial Crime
- Financial Secrecy Jurisdictions
- Transnational Organized Crime and Criminal Money Management
- Alternative Banking and Finance Architectures
- Access to Finance in Conflict Zones
Teaching staff:
- Qualifications:LL.B (Aberystwyth), LL.M (Aberystwyth), PhD (Aberystwyth), PGCTHE FHEA (UWE)
- Position:Associate Professor Transnational Organised Crime
- Department:Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) FBL - Law
- Telephone:+441173287807
- Email:Mary.Young@uwe.ac.uk
About me
"A talented young researcher who is undertaking research of considerable theoretical, empirical and practical significance" (Professor Ben Bowling); "The only one left who understands the importance of history to understanding current events. A vanishing skill in a world focused only on the news of the last 5 minutes!" (Professor Jay Albanese).
Important work in 2025:
My recommendations have been included in His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies, Fire and Rescue Services review of law enforcement and criminal justice bodies in the British Virgin Islands: Volume 2 – a road map for 2025 to 2035. Read here: hmicfrs.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/publications/british-virgin-islands-law-enforcement-and-criminal-justice-road-map-2025-2035/
Recent funding:
2024-25 UWE Engagement and Impact Fund award holder
2023-24 British Academy and Leverhulme Small Grants award holder
2022-23 Arts Humanities Research Council Impact Acceleration Award holder
2021-23 UWE Vice Chancellor’s Accelerator Programme
Union roles:
I am a University and Colleges Union (UCU) Representative for the College of Business and Law at UWE.
Additionally I am the UCU Representative for Researchers at UWE.
I sit on the UWE UCU Executive Committee.
Follow me on Google Scholar here
I am a critical legal theorist, with an interest in the formation and application of international organised and financial crime laws in small island and developing states. I possess significant empirical expertise concerning policy application and law enforcement efforts to undermine organised crime and work discretely and sensitively with law makers and enforcers at the international level. My doctoral thesis analysed the dichotomy between proceeds of crime confiscation and confidentiality laws in tackling financial crime in the Overseas Territories with a focus on the Cayman Islands. Awarded in 2012, the study continues to shape my research direction: hence the interest in small island states and the assumed fairness of anti-organised crime laws. I believe strongly in the value of archival work in legal research, where the past informs the present and increasingly employ historiography with visits to The National Archives. For research, I have travelled to countries as diverse as Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Iceland, Lao PDR and Italy. Regular invites to consult and discuss with a range of parties, on the topic of organised crime legislation underscores the importance of my work nationally, regionally and internationally. I am available to supervise MPhils and PhDs.
I live in the Westcountry with my children and a mountain biker. You won't find me on a social network, but maybe in a tea shop. Dislikes: wealth inequality, clotted cream. Likes: Fleetwood Mac, pea fritters. I have epilepsy and support freedom from discrimination. Pronouns: She/her.
mary.young@uwe.ac.uk CV available on request.
Area of expertise
In 2009 I undertook a placement with the Crime Expert at the UNODC Lao PDR field office, and have previously attended the UNTOC CoP, Vienna. In 2015 & 2017 I was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Cambridge Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL). I have previously delivered research to bodies including Parliamentary Committees, Western Union, regional and national law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Justice in Jamaica, and the UNODC in Lao PDR. I have been an expert discussant at numerous NGO closed meetings, on shell companies, drugs and firearms trafficking, financial crime and strategic tax litigation.
• Media Contributions: (CIPER (South America); Byline Times; Pravda; New York Times; Talk Media; Bristol Cable; BBC Radio Wiltshire; Latin Lawyer; Deutsche Welle; Financial Times; Tax Justice Network; Dods Parliamentary Communications; LA Times; Wall Street Journal, Jane's Intelligence; Tax Justice Network.
• Editor/Reviewer: The Journal of Money Laundering Control; The Journal of Financial Crime; European Review of Organised Crime; Oxford University Press; European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research; Springer Publishing; Company Lawyer; Tax Justice Focus; Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation; Trends in Organized Crime.
• Knowledge Exchange: Tax Justice Network; Royal United Services Institute; International Association for the Study of Organized Crime; Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Lao PDR, 2009); Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs; Metropolitan Police Service; Jamaica Constabulary Force & Ministry of National Security; Regional Organised Crime Units; Independent consultancy bodies.
• Events: Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime; Tax Justice Network; UWE Interdisciplinary Symposium on Organized Crime; Socio-Legal Studies Association; ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime; Open Society; Amnesty International.
• Range: International criminal law and national policies; Caribbean; financial secrecy jurisdictions; Global South; organized crime – corruption, trafficking (firearms/wildlife/drugs); money laundering; alternative banking systems.
• Mentors: Professor Barry Rider (Jesus, Cambridge); Professor Ben Bowling (King's College London); Professor Jay Albanese (Virginia Commonwealth University, US); Dr Mike Woodiwiss (UWE).
Publications
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