Dr Alexandria Bradley, Senior Lecturer

Dr Alexandria Bradley

Senior Lecturer

Alexandria specialises in Trauma-Informed and Responsive practice for men and women inside prison and post-release. She worked in partnership with One Small Thing to develop the Working With Trauma Quality Mark to provide a national benchmark for practitioners and institutions.

Alexandria's expertise is in the implementation sciences surrounding organisational and institutional change. With a particular focus on trauma-informed and responsive practices. She specialises in the evaluation and quality assurance of these approaches. She has evaluated working with trauma approaches within probation services, men and women's prisons and women's centres nationally. She has specialised in evaluating environments, practices, governance and therapeutic interventions which seek to support the long term healing of trauma for women with histories of sex work. 

Alexandria is passionate about providing relational, trauma-informed support. As a former HMPPS practitioner, she has applied experience in supporting men and women through their recovery from addictions such as drug and alcohol use and people who have experienced gambling harm. These also influence her research portfolio.

Alexandria is vice-chair on the board of trustees at Together Women. This is a charitable organisation who work with women and girls with multiple and complex needs across the North of England. In addition, she is a member of the Violence Against Women and Girls Women’s Independent Advisory Group for West Yorkshire Police. 

Alexandria is Employability Lead for Criminology within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. She leads a variety of specialist and applied optional modules for students who are interested in prisons and/or becoming the next criminal justice practitioners. She also co-leads a module which is based within the educational department at HMP Full Sutton. This offers students a unique learning experience, alongside prison-based students.

Current Teaching

Alexandria is module leader for the following modules:

  • Level 6: Innovations in Desistance and Recovery
  • Level 6: Learning Together (Co-led with Dr Bill Davies)
  • Level 6: Work-Based Learning (Co-led with Lewis Simpson)
  • Level 7: Transforming Rehabilitation and Punishment

Research Interests

Alexandria's research was used in partnership with One Small Thing to develop the UK's first Working With Trauma Quality Mark. This enables organisations to demonstrate their good practice and to increase quality assurance and evidence-based practice, when working with trauma. She is now a Quality Standards Assessor with One Small Thing to support and nurture organisations towards achieving the accreditation.

Alexandria co-leads a research project exploring the voices of Muslim women leaving prison. This is a successful and long-standing partnership between Dr Sarah Goodwin (Sheffield Hallam University) and Sofia Buncy MBE (National Coordinator of the Muslim Women in Prison Project). They have produced academic texts and continue to examine best practice to support marginalised and minoritised groups within the Criminal Justice System.

Dr Alexandria Bradley, Senior Lecturer

Ask Me About

  1. Crime
  2. Feminism
  3. Gender
  4. Justice
  5. Mental health
  6. Prison
  7. Psychology
  8. Rehabilitation

Selected Outputs

  • Danks K; Bradley A (2017) Negotiating barriers: prisoner and staff perspectives on mental wellbeing in the open prison setting. Journal of Criminal Psychology, 8 (1), pp. 3-19.

    https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-03-2017-0016

  • Bradley A (2020) A Qualitative Evaluation of The Nelson Trust Griffin Programme [Online].

  • Bradley A (2020) A Qualitative Evaluation of The Nelson Trust Bridgwater Women’s Centre [Online]. Leeds Beckett University.

  • Bradley A (2017) Trauma-informed practice: Exploring the role of adverse life experiences on the behaviour of offenders and the effectiveness of associated criminal justice strategies. Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences, University of Northumbria at Newcastle.

  • Bradley A; Day K; Mahon R (2021) Exploring Shame, Love and Healing within Women’s Recovery: An Analysis of a Trauma Specific Intervention. In: Masson I; Baldwin L; Booth N ed. Critical Reflections on Women, Family, Crime and Justice. Policy Press,