Dr Omar Phoenix Khan

Omar is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Bath and has more than a decade of specialist project management experience in complex multi-partner criminal justice projects.

Academic work

Omar conducts his research, from a critical perspective, focusing on coloniality of justice, specifically seeking to understand judicial decision-making at the pre-trial stage in Brazil.

His second topic of research is in gender-responsive approaches to criminal justice.

Omar holds a PhD in Criminology from the University of Westminster (Quintin Hogg Scholarship). He previously gained an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS - School of Oriental and African Studies, and a BSc in Psychology from Reading University.

He gained a permanent lectureship at the University of Bath in 2022 after lecturing on the MSc Criminology course at the University of Oxford over the previous academic year.

You can read more about Omar’s academic work here.

Practitioner Work

As part of a Gender & Security Toolkit Coordinated by ODIHR, DCAF and UN Women, Omar wrote the guidance document on places of deprivation of liberty and gender. This toolkit has been translated into Arabic, French, Georgian, and Spanish (available here).

Omar successfully led Penal Reform International's tri-country project to improve community-based alternatives to prison in East Africa and reconceptualised the model for engagement based on the evidence.

As a consultant, he has successfully delivered evaluations of projects for UNICEF, the Thailand Institute for Justice and DFID and conducted research for ICPR World Prison Brief. Omar evaluated an innovative project in Kenya, which piloted adaptations to probation tools to implement a gender-sensitive approach. He also presented his findings at the British Society of Criminology's Annual Conference and has a published peer-reviewed article on the topic available here.

For five years, Omar worked for HM Prison Service and led departments across two London prisons as Head of Equality and Diversity. He trained staff, improved conditions for prisoners and conducted equality impact assessments.

Omar presented at the Second World Congress for Community Corrections and has attended expert meetings on the implementation of the new United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules) with special interest in developing contexts. 

Podcast

Omar also hosts the Justice Focus Podcast. A criminology podcast that focuses on the latest exciting projects happening in criminal justice all over the world. It brings together practitioners, front line staff, NGO workers, academics - basically all those people working passionately and compassionately in criminal justice systems.

You can listen directly on this website here, or download on a number of podcast platforms:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Breaker | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Pocket Casts | RadioPublic

Key WOrds

Criminal Justice, reform, consultant, project manager, evaluation, assessment, strategy, planning, alternatives to prison, pre-trial detention, prison conditions, diversion, equality and diversity, rehabilitation, research, speaking, theory of change, gender sensitive, accessible, co-ordination, facilitation.