Staff Profile

Alison is a Research Associate for the Modelling, Evidence and Policy research group in the School of Natural Environmental Science. As a critical social scientist and green criminologist, her research interests include wildlife and environmental harms and crimes, global biodiversity governance, and issues surrounding social and ecological justice. Her current research centres on the implementation of Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (the target that highlights the need for urgent action to prevent species extinctions). Through her work with the IUCN SSC Global Biodiversity Framework Task Force she is attempting to bring more of a focus to holistic conservation approaches rooted in decolonial ecological justice, human rights, and the rights of nature.

She gained her PhD specializing in green criminology in 2022 at Northumbria University. Her thesis examined the harms and crimes surrounding both trade and legislation interventions for the minke whale, queen conch, and the Atlantic bluefin tuna. The research focussed on the motivations underpinning exploitation as well as the visibility of wildlife victims.

More recently she has worked within the Beastly Business team at the University of Sheffield, examining the intersections between legal and illegal trade of European species. She led the European eel research focus and conducted research both in and around the UK and the Sargasso Sea. Prior to this, she produced a global scoping analysis of wildlife legislation, in collaboration with Professor Tanya Wyatt and the Wildlife Conservation Society. She produced an online interactive dashboard and report of wildlife-related offences and penalties, with an emphasis on establishing potential pathways for non-custodial and restorative responses to wildlife crimes.

Alison additionally holds an MSC in Conservation and the International Wildlife Trade from the University of Kent, and a BSc in Environmental Science from the University of Reading (UK).

Policy engagement

Alison works closely with the IUCN SSC Global Biodiversity Framework Task Force to support the implementation of the species related targets - see the Task Force website here

Research themes and interests

Green Criminology

Wildlife and Environmental Crime

Fishery Crime: Exploitation of Marine and Freshwater Species

Environmentalism, Species Justice, Environmental Justice

Animal rights

Visual Research Methods

• Articles

  • McGowan PJK, Hutchinson A, Brooks TM, Elliott W, Hoffmann M, Mair L, McDougall A, Raimondo DC, Butchart SMH. Understanding and achieving species elements in the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework . BioScience 2024, 74(9), 614-623.
  • Hutchinson A. The Harms and Crimes Against Marine Wildlife. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice 2023, Epub ahead of print.
  • Wyatt T, Hutchinson A. Plant Blindness and the Law on International Trade in Wildlife. Erasmus Law Review 2023, 1.
  • Hutchinson A, Camino-Troya M, Wyatt T. Global scoping of wildlife crime offences, penalties, and statistics. Global Journal of Animal Law 2023, 11(1).
  • Hutchinson A, Stephens-Griffin N, Wyatt T. Speciesism and the Wildlife Trade: Who gets Listed, Downlisted and Uplisted in CITES?. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 2022, 11(2), 191-209.
  • Wyatt T, Friedman K, Hutchinson A. Are Fish Wild?. Liverpool Law Review 2021, 42, 485-492.
  • Gladkova E, Hutchinson A, Wyatt T. Green Criminology in International Perspectives. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice 2020.
  • Hutchinson A, Roberts DL. Differentiating captive and wild African lion (Panthera leo) populations in South Africa, using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. Biodiversity and Conservation 2020, 29, 2255-2273.