Sasha Jesperson
Sasha Jesperson is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery at St Mary’s University Twickenham. Before coming to St Mary’s, Sasha was leading research on organised crime at the Royal United Services Institute, working closely with government departments to ensure that research is useful for strengthening policymaking on organised crime. Her research background is on organised crime and particularly the role of development is preventing and responding to criminal activity.
Subjects: Criminology and Criminal Justice
Biography
Sasha Jesperson is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery at St Mary’s University Twickenham. Before coming to St Mary’s, Sasha was leading research on organised crime at the Royal United Services Institute, working closely with government departments to ensure that research is useful for strengthening policymaking on organised crime. Her research background is on organised crime and particularly the role of development is preventing and responding to criminal activity.Sasha completed her PhD at the London School of Economics. Her research examined international initiatives to address organised crime through peace building missions under the framework of the security-development nexus, comparing examples from Sierra Leone and Bosnia. Sasha also completed an MSc in Human Rights at the London School of Economics and worked for Amnesty International for three years, primarily focusing on human rights in conflict and post-conflict contexts.
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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organised crime, security-development nexus, West Africa, Western Balkans
Personal Interests
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kayaking, mountaineering, hiking
Books
Articles
Development engagement with organised crime: a necessary shift
Published: Nov 05, 2014 by Conflict, Security and Development
Authors: Sasha Jesperson
Subjects:
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Organised crime is recognised as a development problem as well as a security threat. Underdevelopment creates a conducive environment for crime, while illicit flows undermine development progress. Development actors have begun to consider organised crime in their programming, but there remains a reluctance to directly engage because of fears of securitisation. This article draws on emerging reports from development agencies that begin to consider how organised crime can be addressed.
Videos
Published: Dec 18, 2015
Dr Sasha Jesperson, Research Fellow in National Security and Resilience at RUSI, says strategies to detect and deter organised crime must be updated in 2016.