Dr Thiago Oliveira
Academic and research departments
Department of Sociology, Centre for Criminology, Innovations in methodology, Criminology and criminal justice.About
Biography
I joined the University of Surrey as a Lecturer in Criminology in 2022. Previously, I was a Research Fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford. I have a PhD in Social Research Methods from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2021).
I am a quantitative criminologist who draws on theories from sociology, social policy, and psychology to investigate the implications of police misconduct and aggressive policing tactics to cultural orientations towards the law, public recognition of legal authority, crime, and violence in large cities in the Global North and the Global South. I study these topics from a quantitative social science approach, and mostly use survey, admin, police, and census data and other kinds of data to investigate the extent to which people lose faith in legal authority when they are repeatedly exposed to police brutality and injustice, especially in high-crime contexts, and I am particularly motivated to explore the degree to which this relationship is causal. I usually rely on statistical, computational, and causal inference methods. My work has appeared in venues such as the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Experimental Criminology, Law & Society Review, and The British Journal of Criminology.
At Surrey, I teach modules in criminology and quantitative research methods.
Prior to joining the University of Surrey, I was a Research Fellow of Oxford's Nuffield College. During my PhD years, I was an Associate Lecturer (Teaching) in Quantitative Research Methods and Data Analysis at University College London (UCL). Prior to my doctoral studies, I was a Research Assistant and then Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence of the University of São Paulo (NEV-USP) and a Visiting Scholar at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati, Basque Country/Spain. I am currently an Associate Member of the Centre for Social Investigation (Nuffield College, University of Oxford), an Associate of Harvard University’s Department of Sociology, and an Associate Member of the Centre for the Study of Violence of the University of Sao Paulo. I am also part of the team for the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN+), a multi-cohort study led by Robert Sampson (Harvard) and Dave Kirk (Oxford).
I am also a tennis fanatic, a coffee enthusiast, an engaged cyclist, a vegetarian food lover, and am always keen on chatting about those and other topics at anytime. Feel free to drop me a line!
Areas of specialism
My qualifications
ResearchResearch interests
My chief research interests are primarily organised around the following topics:
Consequences of police misconduct
Drawing on procedural justice theory, legal cynicism theory, and legal socialisation theory, I am curious about the the extent to which people lose faith in the legitimacy of legal institutions when they are repeatedly exposed to police misconduct, including exposure police aggressive and/or violent behaviour during childhood and adolescence, as well as the consequences of undermined legitimacy beliefs to deviant behaviour and tolerance of violence. I’m interested in the effects of public-police interactions, but also in broader temporal and cultural aspects. For instance, what are the effects of cumulative exposures to police misconduct throughout the life course? Do people who belong to specific social groups and are collectively exposed to certain police practices develop shared expectations and tools through which to interpret the functioning of the law?
Procedural justice theory
I’m interested in theoretical developments of procedural justice theory, as well as its close connections to the legal cynicism and legal socialisation perspectives. I’m particularly keen to investigate what other aspects of police conduct beyond fair process could also consist of legitimating norms that contribute to enhance or harm public beliefs about the legitimacy of legal authority, especially in understudied societies in the Global South. For instance, my ongoing investigation in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, demonstrates that perceptions of overpolicing (e.g., the degree to which people perceive police officers to be repeatedly intruding upon their lives) and underpolicing (e.g., how sceptical people are about police officers’ interest and ability to ensure public safety) also contribute to undermine legitimacy beliefs.
Confrontational proactive policing tactics
I’m very keen to conduct criminal justice policy evaluations. I’m eager to assess the extent to which certain aggressive policing tactics such as stop and search actually work to deter crime, but also if they work as a tool of social order maintenance and even whther they end up promoting legal cynicism and offending behaviour. For instance, in previous research I showed that police stops at gunpoint undermine legitimacy beliefs and that stop and search practices in London tend to concentrate in economically unequal locations. In general, I’m mostly keen to investigate policing policy in Latin America, especially Brazil.
Quantitative methods
I am also very interested in teaching, applying, and developing quantitative research methods. Drawing on data science, statistical, and econometric methods, my main methodological interests include longitudinal data analysis, causal inference with observational data, measurement, multilevel modelling, spatial data models, and R programming.
Research interests
My chief research interests are primarily organised around the following topics:
Consequences of police misconduct
Drawing on procedural justice theory, legal cynicism theory, and legal socialisation theory, I am curious about the the extent to which people lose faith in the legitimacy of legal institutions when they are repeatedly exposed to police misconduct, including exposure police aggressive and/or violent behaviour during childhood and adolescence, as well as the consequences of undermined legitimacy beliefs to deviant behaviour and tolerance of violence. I’m interested in the effects of public-police interactions, but also in broader temporal and cultural aspects. For instance, what are the effects of cumulative exposures to police misconduct throughout the life course? Do people who belong to specific social groups and are collectively exposed to certain police practices develop shared expectations and tools through which to interpret the functioning of the law?
Procedural justice theory
I’m interested in theoretical developments of procedural justice theory, as well as its close connections to the legal cynicism and legal socialisation perspectives. I’m particularly keen to investigate what other aspects of police conduct beyond fair process could also consist of legitimating norms that contribute to enhance or harm public beliefs about the legitimacy of legal authority, especially in understudied societies in the Global South. For instance, my ongoing investigation in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, demonstrates that perceptions of overpolicing (e.g., the degree to which people perceive police officers to be repeatedly intruding upon their lives) and underpolicing (e.g., how sceptical people are about police officers’ interest and ability to ensure public safety) also contribute to undermine legitimacy beliefs.
Confrontational proactive policing tactics
I’m very keen to conduct criminal justice policy evaluations. I’m eager to assess the extent to which certain aggressive policing tactics such as stop and search actually work to deter crime, but also if they work as a tool of social order maintenance and even whther they end up promoting legal cynicism and offending behaviour. For instance, in previous research I showed that police stops at gunpoint undermine legitimacy beliefs and that stop and search practices in London tend to concentrate in economically unequal locations. In general, I’m mostly keen to investigate policing policy in Latin America, especially Brazil.
Quantitative methods
I am also very interested in teaching, applying, and developing quantitative research methods. Drawing on data science, statistical, and econometric methods, my main methodological interests include longitudinal data analysis, causal inference with observational data, measurement, multilevel modelling, spatial data models, and R programming.
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
I welcome PhD applications on topics related to policing, crime and violence in the Global North or in the Global South using quantitative research methods. Other topics could also be of interest, feel free to drop me a line to discuss.
Teaching
I am currently involved with teaching the following modules:
- SOC1034 Crime and Society;
- SOC1050 Measuring the Social World: Quantitative Methods;
- SOC2093 Advanced Quantitative Methods.